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Asus Eee Pad swapping Windows for Android

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Our friends from Netbook News are in the ASUS headquarters no doubt rummaging through their big room full of netbooks like kittens in a yarn factory. One tidbit they’ve snuck out is that the ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC will not ship with Windows Embedded Compact 7 as previously reported, but rather a version of Android.

Referring to Windows CE as “outdated” (WEC7 is a new version of the old CE operating system), they report ASUS is jumping on the Android bus along with most of the other new tablet makers (Apple and HP are notable exceptions). Nothing concrete about which version of Android they’ll be using, but given the launch is not scheduled until Q1 2011, it could be Android 3.0 a.k.a. Gingerbread. Gingerbread is rumored to support larger screen sizes, up to 1024×768, which indicates they’re aiming for tablet support.

7 Comments

7 Comments

  1. acerbic

    07/20/2010 at 10:39 am

    About that headline… not very nice to try to pump the resident Windows slate haters so full of glee that they explode :-?

    • Sumocat

      07/20/2010 at 10:56 am

      While others have used less flattering terms, such as “drop” and “dump”, I specifically chose “swap” because it is neutral. I would also point out that Microsoft uses the term “Windows” generically for all their operating systems, as seen in their default email signature “Sent from my Windows® phone”.

      • acerbic

        07/20/2010 at 11:03 am

        Just my way of pointing out that when you see “Windows”, these days you probably wouldn’t think of Windows CE…

        • Sumocat

          07/20/2010 at 11:22 am

          Fair enough, but when Steve Ballmer trumpets the arrival of new “Windows 7” slates running Windows Embedded Compact 7, don’t say nobody warned you. The graphic that shows the “Windows 7” slates coming this year is very revealing.

          • acerbic

            07/20/2010 at 11:52 am

            Now that would be a horror movie twist. I wish you hadn’t warned me; I enjoy a good scare.

            “The Windows 7 slate has come back from the Pet Sematary… oh no, it’s CE now… AAAAGGHH!!!!”

  2. pdg

    07/21/2010 at 1:02 am

    This piece of news sounds a lot like the HP slate death ‘rumor’.
    ASUS was known to be prepping an Android tablet; are they really ‘swapping’, or is it just a different product, while the WEC version will come out later?
    Anyway I don’t really care as far as they bring the 12-inch windows7-equipped beauty to the market.

  3. GTaylor

    07/21/2010 at 6:24 am

    I wonder how many of these Android slates can be loaded with other available operating systems.

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