WePad is no more….No, no..don’t take it the same way you interpreted the news of HP Slate’s project shutdown or Microsoft Courier’s brutal slaughter. It’s just that the brand ‘WePad’ is no more.

WePad has now officially changed its product name to WeTab. Here is the official statement from Neofonie..

To clearly differentiate our products within the international market for tablet computers, as of today we have changed the product name of our tablet computer from WePad to WeTab. Similarly, the company formerly known as WePad GmbH will now trade under WeTab GmbH. This change only concerns the name of the product and company. All other particulars and pre-orders are not affected.

As we noted in our review of WePad, the brand name sounded like a cheap copycat of Apple iPad and that’s probably one strong reason why WePad is now WeTab.

Apart from that, another reason could also be Apple’s issues with the closely resembled name of WePad with iPad and everyone knows how fuzzy Apple is about all such things, even when iPad is cruising away and looking almost invincible in tablet space.

R.I.P. WePad !

Source

Courier tablet was a two-screen folding tablet device, which was supposed to facilitate both Touch computing and Pen computing on the same device and was more inclined to be a productivity device, rather than Just-for-fun device.

As it was certain that Microsoft would use its own Operating System, Windows 7 in Courier tablet as well, its Killing of Courier project reaffirms HP’s decision to drop the idea of Windows 7 based Courier tablet. All this concludes that there must be major pitfalls in Windows 7 as a tablet OS and therefore, both the companies felt it right to stop investing on something that’s weak from its roots.

This also makes pretty sure that Apple iPad is going to make some serious domination in the evolving Tablet market, before any of its competitors makes it to the stores.

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And the latest one to bring more competition to iPad is WePad. It apparently sounds like a cheap copycat of Apple iPad but it’s certainly not. It’s actually a shocker of a gizmo and brings a lot for the consumer to take away, especially when one compares it to what Apple iPad is offering.

Built by Germany based Neofonie, WePad adds some staggering hardware capabilities that are way too far from iPad till date. Take a look at the head-on comparison table between iPad and WePad.

Now WePad, as defined by its creators, runs a Linux derivative with Android on top. And this makes it a suitable device to run thousands of Android applications over it. With growing prevalence of Android platform and more apps being added to its marketplace faster than ever, WePad might turn things difficult for iPad in the initial run, especially in Germany and European continent where WePad will make its debue next month itself.

Another thing to note here is that WePad is trying its best to fancy the publishing industry magnates and projecting its device as the most ideal slate device for serving digital analogue of magazines and newspapers. It makes perfect sense because the parent company(Neofonie) has already been busy providing software services through WeMagazine ePublishing Eco System and now, the same software will power WePad. Here’s a factsheet for WePad. Take a look.

It is yet to be seen whether WePad, JooJoo, HP Slate or other queued up slate devices will be able to dominate the evolving market of “couch computing” when there is iPad to compete with but it is sure that Apple iPad will not be squeezing the non-existent yet lucrative market of slate devices all alone.

Yes, the Apple Tablet has finally got an official name. It’s called iPad, Apple iPad.

So, without much ado, let’s get to the real business right away..What’s the deal with the tech specs !

• Thickness : 0.5 inches
• Weight : 1.5 Pounds
• Display : 9.7 inches IPS
• Touchscreen : Capacitive, Multi-touch
• 16GB-64GB Flash Storage
• Processor : 1GHz Apple A4 chip (Apple’s own silicon chip)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Battery life : Upto 10 hours, 30 days standby
• Speaker, microphone and 30-pin connector
• Accelerometer and Compass

Accessories :

• Dock
• Dock keyboard
• Case

Pricing (U.S.) :

WiFi Only

• $499 for 16GB
• $599 for 32GB
• $799 for 64GB

WiFi + 3G

3G models cost an extra $130.

• $629 for 16 GB
• $729 for 32 GB
• $829 for 64 GB

Availability:

WiFi iPads By March 2010 (Worldwide)

WiFi+3G iPads by April 2010 (U.S. and selected countries)

So, what does that mean to Apple fanbois in India ? When will Apple iPad hit the indian gadget stores and at what price ?

As Apple iPad is going to sell unlocked, Apple’s approach is to dominate globally this time. And indians would find iPad cheaper than expected.

In India, the price range might start from Rs. 25k(base model without 3G) and will go upto Rs. 35k .

Stay tuned for more update on iPad.