
Can't be
bothered with Compal
Toshiba has given up on reaching a deal with Compal over
building its new tablet PCs and is instead working with Pegatron. Toshiba wanted to partner with Compal to develop two
tablet PCs for introduction at the end of 2010. One was to ship with Android and Nvidia's Tegra 2 processor and the other
Windows CE 7 with a dual-display design.
It is not clear why Toshiba could not reach a deal with
Compal. Certainly the outfit would be disappointed not to be
working with Toshiba. Compal does not
have any first-tier PC brands' tablet PC orders. It might get a few orders from second-tier
and regional brand vendors in the short-term.
According to
Digitimes the long term plan is to try and butter up
Dell. Its rival Quanta is currently in partnership with both Acer
and Lenovo for tablet PCs. Acer is expected to launch its tablet PCs including
a 7-inch Android model using Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor in the fourth
quarter.
Lenovo is also working with Wistron on tablet PCs.
Inventec currently is manufacturing tablet PCs for Hewlett-Packard while Dell's 5-inch Streak, which uses
Android and a Qualcomm processor, is made by Qisda.
Pegatron is laughing all the way to the bank. In addition to its Toshiba orders it also has
tablet PC orders from Asustek Computer which are expected to ship in the third
quarter.