First 10.2 inch shanzhai rotating touch screen netbook

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Comments Posted on Sep 22, 2009 Posted by Song Jiang

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.

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.