Huawei has lifted the veil on what will be its first entry in the ever expanding tablet market.
The company, whose name is pronounced “wah-way,” is the largest mobile manufacturer in China. Its presence in other countries, however, remains muted at best.
It is working to change that. Huawei does have a few smartphones available in the US, mostly targeted at budget-conscious consumers.
However, it may be with the 7-inch MediaPad that it really starts to gain traction here. It’s already noteworthy because it is expected to be one of the first devices to run on version 3.2 of Google’s Android operating system.
With several tweaks and fixes over what was seen as a buggy Android 3.0, the latest version of the mobile platform has the best shot at taking on Apple’s iPad in the competitive tablet wars.
This won’t be the first tablet for Huawei. The company launched a device called the S7 in Europe and Asia earlier this year, but failed to introduce it to the US. That managed to net the company just 1% of the global tablet market share. The MediaPad will be its first tablet to come stateside and is poised to make a much more considerable dent.
The company recently announced its sales forecast for the year and predicted a very modest growth from 185.2 billion yuan last year to just 199 billion yuan this year. However, because of huge inflation worries in China and a troublesome labor market, it’s noteworthy for the company to be expecting any growth at all.
There’s no release date or pricing information yet for the MediaPad.
