Well the tablet still exists, and they are still trying to push it.  And they had one here at IDF. (Intel developers conference)  Although it looked REALLY sweet and has to be the largest ‘pad’ I’ve ever held, it just did not seem to work very well. I tool a video with my droid (sorry about the quality) and you can see its just not quite there yet, but still, pretty nice platform.  Put Android on that bad boy and then we are talking!

So check out this video below. Even when they get the OS working, I think its too late.  They should really explore putting Android on this thing.

A few days back we heard how TechCrunch’s Arrington announced how the group he was working with to design a simple slate (NetTablet) decided to go on with the product without him now calling it JooJoo priced at $500.  I do note expect it to be anything more then yet-another-netTablet given that its a custom OS tablet that must compete with Apple, many Andriod/Chrome and MS versions coming out, makes no sense.

So now are down to three.  And if you are thinking; ‘this seems a lot like the PC wars of old’ you would be correct. Although we have 3 major players instead of two.  And this time, MicroSoft is looking to go the Apple way by building married OS/hardware systems.  So you have MS and Apple building married devices and Android as the ‘open’ platform.  So who is going to win?  Well, lets have a look at the battlefield shall we?

First off, we have a brave new world of ‘Cloud’ computing returning. This is not your fathers cloud computing, where the device is useless without a connection, but close.  The NetTablets will be VERY thin devices that will only perform the basic tasks on their own.  A sort of compromise between the Personal Computer (PC) and the Terminal Computer.  With 128gig USB devices floating around out there, storage will not be an issue and we will find the graphics cards will be more powerful then the CPU.   These NetTablets will focus on two things.  Running a browser and displaying media.  Also, we are entering a new age starting with HTML5 where browsers can operate application even if they are offline.  Its almost as if you download an application that runs through the browser and that application is updated each time you refresh. Cache not withstanding.

We also are in the ‘iPhone’ age.  Not the best name I know, but you have to admit that the iphone completely changed how we think about mobile keyboard-less devices. {Update: just heard the term AppPhone.  Love it.} Between the iPhone and App store, we can see a platform that can perform a large number of tasks that before were relegated to PC (not just windows) only.  Android is simply another expression of this new understanding of mobile computing

And finally, we are FAR more connected then we have ever been before.  With 3G and unlimited plans, most users can connect to the web anywhere and at anytime.  The stage is set.  We can finally explore ‘Slate’ computing as it was invisioned almost 10 years ago.

Image from TechCrunch

Image from Engadget

Yes, as of 9:30 am PST, we have entered the net tablet war.  And who knew the first battle would be an internal one?  As I’m sure you have already heard, Arrington’s idea of a simple, cheap couch computer, christened the ‘CrunchPad’, now called the JooJoo was shown to the press in SF and via video conference.  I was not there.   However, I really did not need to be, I watched the comment stream on CNET and heard what I needed to hear.

I did not think, we perhaps with exception to Arrington, that it would be a $200 device.  I was guessing at $550 with $400 as the cheapest once mass production kicks in and I was not that far off from the announced $499.  The specs are as we heard; 12inch screen, usb, stripped down embedded Unix running HTML5.  (I thought it would have been Linux).  The green tint is a camera issue.  I’ll look for a better image later.

Here are more specs from the engadget live blog..

12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, 4GB SSD, accelerometer, “enough graphic power to deliver full HD video.”

So the first victim is the name ‘CrunchPad’, cant imagine they will go forward with it.  And I will also expect this device to end up in someone elses hands since Arrington will not leave these guys alone.. from a legal point of view, although so far, no suits have been pressed forward. (Pun intended).

So, civil war or not… the Great Tablet War… Oh, its on!

BTW, I love this line from the live blog..

So all TechCrunch contributed is marketing? “It depends on what you define as marketing. Michael has helped us talk about what a tablet can do, but so have many others. We can take this to market without TechCrunch… TechCrunch is just a blog.”