Tracking the products, trends and reach of China's local to global tech culture.
DEFINITION: Shanzai [San-zai -alt. sp.Shanzhai] 1. mountain fortress/bandit 2. a vendor, who operates a business without observing the traditional rules or practices often resulting in innovative and unusual products or business models.

First 10.2 inch shanzhai rotating touch screen netbook
Gadget Types - Notebooks & Netbooks
Written by Song Jiang   
Tuesday, 22 September 2009 14:57

Add story to:

Digg    Facebook    StumbleUpon    Newsvine    Deli.cio.us    reddit   
seebangu-rotating-touchscreen1
Here's a sneak preview of the very first shanzai rotational touch screen device. Known in local circles as the '100 See Ban Gu', this 10.2 inch device can be used in a tablet fashion, making it right on time for the release of Windows 7 and the rebirth of touch screen for the masses.

The '100 See Ban Gu' (another classic shanzhai name) is, in terms of hardware, mostly a netbook, especially on the inside. The Intel Atom N270 uses its usual chipset partner, the GMA945 backed with 1GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive, add to that a built-in wireless chip, Ethernet networking and a card reader. So no surprises there. The genius lies in its swivel touch screen display, a feature which has started to creep gradually into a few mainstream western designs; Asus' T91 and T101H spring most immediately to mind.

We are just about exactly a month away from the release of Windows 7, which is predicted to bring 'touch screen' to the fore for consumers. With Windows XP tablet edition you had a regular XP OS that offered a basic layer of touch screen functionality over the top. But since conception (and demise) of the Tablet PC concept, we've seen huge gains made on touch screen phones. Multi-touch on an iPhone is way slicker than anything XP Tablet edition could do, and more importantly it proved that sophisticated touch screen functionality is, and will increasingly become a very important feature on mobile devices.

seebangu-rotating-touchscreen2
seebangu-rotating-touchscreen3
seebangu-rotating-touchscreen4

Western Opportunity Analysis:

So now that Microsoft is finally giving 'touch screen' the attention it deserves, recognizing that this is a hardware feature that consumers really want, you could say that with Windows 7, 'touch screen' for the PC has finally come of age. The shanzhai will see this as an obvious gap in the market, and one that they will exploit to the hilt. Expect to see many more devices featuring a rotating touch screen display in the next month or so. By 2010, I'm predicting touch screen roating screens to be incorporated into a many, if not most netbook designs.

Conclusions:

I think this is something that both shanzhai and mainstream OEM are going to find is popular with consumers. Windows 7 will do a lot to add gloss to a feature which has fallen behind on the PC platform. Price for this one is not confirmed but I would expect it to remain largely within the regular shanzhai netbook price range. Will we use a stylus? Probably. Will the rotation device take off? Perhaps.




 

Add comment


Security code
Refresh

English Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) French German Italian Portuguese Russian Spanish
youtube friendfeedtwitter feedfacebook
A quick look at the Android-based T11RK portable media playerMore videos...

Buy Shanzhai

Banner
Banner

Asia Analysis

chinamap
indiamap

Recent Shanzai Tweets

More Shanzhai Devices

Cool Rui X9 tablet gets touchy with Windows 7
cooor1-x9-tablet-1Cool Rui might not be a household name just yet, but if these images are any indication, they are producing a very elegant and nicely balanced Tablet PC device that should at least put them on the map...
More pics & analysis...
Win 7 netbook and touch-screen tablet
Malata-R108T-4Veteran Shenzhen IT company Malata, rolled out a few notebook models last year, but is now increasing investment in product design and development of innovative netbook-type devices. The Malata R108T...
More pics & analysis...
Eking i1 4.8 inch UMPC
ekingi1-1Here's a UMPC style offering from Eking, a Shenzhen based producer that appears to be cloning products from Korean company WiBrain. Clearly focusing on x86-powered hand helds that make up the gray are...
More pics & analysis...
Stainless steel netbook provides 40% more lift
KTNO2-topWith the huge amount of competition between notebook manufacturers in Shenzhen, we’re beginning to see a few go the extra mile to help them stand out from the crowd. Kivu Technology Co. is one such co...
More pics & analysis...
Unlocked iPhone worm – never gonna give you up
iphonevirus-420x0 Thousands of Aussies who had naughtily unlocked their iPhones were suddenly greeted with a new wallpaper on their phones featuring the ‘80s one hit wonder Rick Astley (who became famous for the song...
More pics & analysis...

In Partnership with:

shanzhaibenlogo