That is not a lot of money of what this Android tablet is going to pack, as the product page says the device, dubbed “GenTouch78,” will rock the 2.1 version of the software, an unspecified 800 MHz processor, an 800 x 480 touch screen…..
I have never heard of this company, which is not a good sign for the prospects of this Android tablet but the royalty-free nature of the OS means the tablet can come in at this cheap price. Is it going to be a credible competitor to the Apple iPad? I sincerely doubt Augen’s device will sell more than three million units but its cheap price gives it a puncher’s chance. Also, unless it’s really a clunker, it should provide an easy and relatively affordable alternative to Apple’s “magical” product.
While I firmly believe the Augen Android tablet will just be a footnote in the history of this class of devices, it could be an indication that we’re in store for a flood of tablets rocking the little, green robot. We’ve already seen the Dell Streak inch its way to the market (it’s kind of a smartphone too, so Marc is dubbing it a “smarblet”) and we know more devices should be hitting by the end of the year.
We can’t say we’ve heard of Augen before, but the company certainly sparked our interest (and that of Kmart circular readers) this weekend with its $149.99 7-inch Android tablet. Oh yes, you heard right shoppers — the small Florida-based shop is bringing an Android 2.1 tablet with WiFi, 2GB of storage and 256MB of RAM to a store near you for just 150 buckaroos. And according to an Augen spokesperson, it will have access to the Android “Market App Store.” That sounds pretty awesome for the pricetag, but we — along with a number of readers we’ve heard from — haven’t been able to locate the 7-inch tablet at any Kmart retail location just yet.
We’re told by Augen that the device should be hitting shelves later this week, though the company was unsure it would ever land on Kmart’s online store. In addition to the 7-inch tablet, Augen has also released its $89 TheBook e-reader with a similar 7-inch LCD. It doesn’t run Android, but you can check out an in-depth look at its Linux OS in The eReader’s video review after the break. We’ll be keeping an ear to the ground on the availability of the tablet and will be trying to get one in our hands to confirm the preloaded Market, but let us know in the comments if you’ve had any luck yourselves.
Resources :intomobile.com,engadget.com
This thing is fast and the screen is very nice. I love it!
who has one
I just got one yesterday and we are having problems downloading from the Android Marketplace. I'm told they will have a patch to fix some problems, but they have been saying that for 3 days now. We will see.
Posting now from my Augen. The app store doesn’t work, hangs forever. The screen won’t rotate. The spell check keeps replacing the with sthurston for no apparent reason. It is fast and browses well though. Undecided if I will keep it or not.
For the people who don’t want to spend $400.00 or more on a tablet pc the Augen Tablet is a good alternative. With some tweaks they perform addequate and will make most user pretty happy.