Chances are you never even heard of Sharp’s widely unpublicized Galapagos tablet, but even if you did, don’t plan on hearing much else.
The electronics firm has decided to cease production on its flagship venture into tablet territory, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of the game completely.
The company had launched a 5.5-inch and 10-inch version of the Galapagos tablet, which had a strong focus on e-books. However, there was very little interest in the platform and almost no sort clearly focused marketing campaign.
Regardless, Sharp says it is still planning to launch a 7-inch tablet in the coming months. It’s unclear if the company plans to keep the Galapagos name or come up with something new and fresh.
In spite of the fact that many heralded manufacturers have poured millions of dollars into product research and development, Android tablets remain an incredibly niche – that is, unpopular – market. Honeycomb, the tablet-optimized version of Google’s mobile OS, accounts for about 1% of all Android devices.
After Android was so easily able to pose a threat to the rising dominance of the iPhone, many had expectations that Android tablets would start eating away at the iPad’s monopoly. And of course, they have begun to make a dent, but only because there has been a flood of Android tablets; even though no particular model is selling gangbusters, incidental sales here and there have added up.
The new Sharp tablet will have a 1024×600 resolution display, front and rear cameras, and Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor, and support for mobile data connectivity. No word yet on a release date.
