Lemons to lemonade: how manufacturing and mechanical setbacks shrank the Wikipad

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><hr dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" /> <div class="copy post-body" dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> <div class="image-container" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="Lemons to lemonade how manufacturing and mechanical setbacks shrunk the Wikipad" data-src-height="340" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/02/wiki620-agai.jpg" /></div>A smaller, cheaper gaming tablet? Wikipad President of sales Fraser Townley says it was always in the cards -- but it was supposed to be the company's <em>second</em> tablet, not its first. Business, of course, doesn't always go according to plan. Just before the Wikipad's planned October launch, the company stayed production to refine the product's gamepad element, Townley told us, addressing a technical hiccup that could have troubled customers. Not too long after that, the company's screen supplier told them the part they had hoped to use for the Wikipad's 10.1-inch display was being discontinued. Salt? Meet wound.<br /> <span>Wikipad set out to make the best of a bad situation: it skipped a step. "The 7-inch was always in our roadmap and on our plan," Townley told us, "we just accelerated it." That decision was partly made to please the community, which was a little</span><span> </span>concerned about price<span>. At $249, the new Wikipad is certainly easier on the pocket book, but the redesign delayed the product <em>just</em> long enough to leave it teetering on the edge of a new generation -- the next </span>Tegra chip<span> is right around the corner. Fortunately, so is <em>another</em> Wikipad -- Townley told us the tablet's original 10.1-inch form would be out by the end of the year. He couldn't say if the delayed slate would be using NVIDIA's latest, but he left the possibility wide open. </span><span>"</span><span>There would be no point in launching a Tegra 3 tablet just months before the launch of Tegra 4, would there?" he joked. "We'll keep up with the market." An admirable goal, to say the least. </span><br /> </div></div>

Lemons to lemonade: how manufacturing and mechanical setbacks shrank the Wikipad

A smaller, cheaper gaming tablet? Wikipad President of sales Fraser Townley says it was always in t...

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Wikipad in miniature: 7-inch gaming tablet to debut in spring for $249, 10.1-inch sees further delay

<div dir="rtl" style="text-align: right;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"> <br /> <img alt="Wikipad in miniature 7inch gaming tablet to debut in spring for $249, 101inch sees further delay " data-src-height="340" data-src-width="620" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/02/miniwikipad620.jpg" /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> When a company delays a product for "minor refinement," we typically expect to see small changes that contribute to a stronger overall product. That wasn't Wikipad's approach -- when it took its namesake gaming tablet into the lab for "minor" tweaks, it took a few inches off its screen size. The Wikipad is now a 7-inch tablet, slated to launch in spring for $249. It's smaller, the company says, but no less powerful -- it's keeping the Tegra 3 GPU the original build promised, not to mention 1GB of DDR3 RAM, 16GB of Flash memory, a 2-megapixel front facing camera and a 1,280 x 800 resolution display.</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"> Wikipad's President of sales, Fraser Townley, told us the gamepad design hasn't changed much either. "We took the pinball wizard approach," he said. "We made everybody in the room shut their eyes, and try the controllers. It's not about the look, it's about the feel. Once we got the feel right, <em>then</em> we could worry about the look. That's how the ten inch was born, and that's how the seven inch stayed the same." The attachment boasts new buttons (now labeled a, b, x and y) with a chrome finish, but seems otherwise unchanged. Wikipad is mum on specific availability, but we're told we can expect to hear more after Chinese New Year. As the 10.1-inch original design? It's still coming, but Townley couldn't it narrow it down further than "before Christmas." Read on for Wikipad's official press announcement, or click here to find out how the tablet was cut down to size.</div></div>

Wikipad in miniature: 7-inch gaming tablet to debut in spring for $249, 10.1-inch sees further delay

When a company delays a product for "minor refinement," we typically expect to see small changes that contribute to a stronge...

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