Windows Android Hybrids
But Apple’s not the only company fighting for your business. Asus
just announced a hybrid laptop running Windows that transforms into a
tablet running Android. Using new Intel chips that can handle both
operating systems simultaneously, the Asus Transformer Book Duet is a
13.3-inch laptop that will retail for $599. It looks like your standard
Windows 8.1 touchscreen laptop, but when you undock it and hit an icon
on the screen, it takes a second and becomes a very traditional (albeit
large) Android tablet.
An Indian company called Micromax is also debuting a Windows Laptop/
Android Tablet hybrid called the LapTab, with a planned release in
February, expected price $400-$500.
To be fair, Viewsonic released a very similar device back in 2011, but as my friend Chris Null found when he reviewed the product, it was not ready for primetime.
But will the hybrid concept really take off? Yahoo Tech’s new
editor-in-chief David Pogue thinks probably not: “I’ve lived through the
phase when they made hybrid laptops that have two screens and fold up –
never seen one on a plane. People won’t buy those and people won’t buy
hybrid operating system laptops either. It’s too much complexity.”
So while the idea of a 2-in-1 device sounds good, maybe Pogue is
right. But then again, I want to see if Apple has something in mind here
before I totally buy into what the new boss says.
