Asus: It Was Pure Torture to Build Google's Tablet

[dragonsqrrl]

.... for some reason the link didn't work.

 

[joebob2000]

Asus Chairman Jonney Shih said his workers comared it to torture. "Only our working conditions should be that demanding, not those of hipster start-up Google" he quipped, and then went back to writing out weekly paychecks for his workers to the tune of $50 US

 

[icemunk]

[citation][nom]DSpider[/nom]They should've ditched the front-facing camera (seriously? on a tablet?) and the 3 buttons and add an olephobic coating, to get rid of fingerprints.[/citation]

The front-facing camera might be descent for skype and other apps, so I can see some use for it. However, being an owner of the Asus Transformer, I must say.. an olephobic coating would be nice to help reduce finger prints/smudges. I find myself CONSTANTLY having to clean the screen due to finger prints. It's easy to clean.. but it would definitely be a plus.

 

[Guest]

This is exactly what I was waiting for.

I will happily pay £150 for one of these 7" tablets, just perfect for all the things I want to do with it.

Best thing is, i can easily use it with mobile broad band using my Sensation as a Hotspot.

The correct advertising and these will sell very well indeed.

 

[artk2219]

[citation][nom]gumbedamit[/nom]No one is ever satisfied..[/citation]

I believe the quote your looking for is "everything's amazing, and nobody's happy". Gotta love Louis CK .

 

[wildkitten]

[citation][nom]DSpider[/nom]They should've ditched the front-facing camera (seriously? on a tablet?) and the 3 buttons and add an olephobic coating, to get rid of fingerprints.[/citation]
Actually a front facing camera on a tablet makes more sense than a rear facing one.

I can see doing Skype and other video conference type activities much more easily than a tablet being used to take snapshots. A little big and unwieldy for that.

 

[freggo]

Are we talking $200 cost to Google or $200 retail.
With those specs $200 retail is not all bad.
Where is my Visa card ...

 

[applerocks]

[citation][nom]lamorpa[/nom]At a 7" screen size, it is physically impossible for the human eye to see the difference between these two resolutions when video is playing (still frames are another matter). Why would you want the HD version? Bragging rights?[/citation]

What if when I rent I want to view it on a home HD TV as well as on my portable device since I am given 24 hours to do that on iTunes?

 

[livebriand]

Tablets at $500 (like the ipad) are downright stupid, compared to E350/E450 netbooks. That said, this looks pretty neat and the price is right. I might actually consider getting one of these...

 

[gidgiddonihah]

I hate to complain... But how much would a microSD card slot cost to put in? And give a 64GB option for those who would want to pay .

Other than that it seems like it blows the competition out of the water. They just need to MARKET, or they will never sell as many as Amazon or even BN did.

 

[face-plants]

[citation][nom]lamorpa[/nom]At a 7" screen size, it is physically impossible for the human eye to see the difference between these two resolutions when video is playing (still frames are another matter). Why would you want the HD version? Bragging rights?[/citation]

No silly, you'd want the HD versions to fill up your storage faster so you can use Google's 'awesome' and not free cloud storage. Since the N7 has NO SD slot, rationing storage space is going to be a deal breaker for me with this otherwise very attractive tablet.

This tablet definitely looks like a loss leader product. They'll make little or no money on the hardware and try to make up a little with Google Play store sales and cloud storage. The main goal is to get them a bigger chunk of the market which is still totally dominated by Apple at the moment.

 

[guanyu210379]

Is there a plan to release the tablet with UMTS/3G/4G module? I ain't going to get tablet without it.

 

[bustapr]

I still wouldnt buy it. Why would I want a "high end" tablet if I can barely have apps on it. around 6gb of free space and NO SD CARD SLOT. that isnt very appealing to me. Google shouldve given Asus a bigger price margin to include the sd card slot. I wouldve blindly bought it. I can honestly see the 8gb(6gb free space) tablet failing terribly.

 

[assasin32]

[citation][nom]face-plants[/nom]No silly, you'd want the HD versions to fill up your storage faster so you can use Google's 'awesome' and not free cloud storage. Since the N7 has NO SD slot, rationing storage space is going to be a deal breaker for me with this otherwise very attractive tablet.This tablet definitely looks like a loss leader product. They'll make little or no money on the hardware and try to make up a little with Google Play store sales and cloud storage. The main goal is to get them a bigger chunk of the market which is still totally dominated by Apple at the moment.[/citation]

Which they will probably get a nice chunk of if they play their cards right with this one. $200 price point is hard to ignore with good specs, which is why the kindle fire was popular, that and always being advertised on Amazon.

They would have my money already and I just learned about it an hour ago had they included the microSD slot. They be able to get $250 from me easily if that model had the microSD slot and microHDMI, than again that would be pretty much the Asus Memo 370t which may or may not have been scrapped for this. I am hoping it will still be released.

 

[punahou1]

[citation][nom]gumbedamit[/nom]@punahou1: ummm, so how is Asus gonna make any money if they sell it at cost? Did I miss something?Google is selling it at cost...Not Asus[/citation]
I do not understand why you are asking me this question. My comment was in regard to the 4 month development time. Why don't you ask Asus?

 

[husker]

It is interesting that the writer thought it was important to point out that "the company needed an additional 20 people on the project, and then another 20 on top of that." But the author never told us how many people were initially on the project, which makes it impossible for us to understand the significance of adding 40 people. Did it initially have 4000 people or just 7? Knowing that little tidbit is what gives the statement meaning.

 

[face-plants]

Yeah definitely something missing in the details of Asus' development. Kudos for picking it up since I read this article a few times and didn't notice this omission. Neither did Kevin apparently.

 

[lamorpa]

[citation][nom]mcd023[/nom]ummm, so how is Asus gonna make any money if they sell it at cost? Did I miss something?[/citation]
Asus isn't retailing it, Google is. Asus makes the money on the wholesale markup.