Toshiba Unveils Tablet With 13.3-Inch Display

The tablet market has developed into a surprisingly lucrative hardware niche for major manufacturers. One reason is that tablets fill a void between full-size laptop computers and smartphones.

So Toshiba's recent unveiling of a rather massive 13.3-inch Android 4.0 tablet computer has taken a great many industry experts by surprise.

Toshiba has now unveiled not one, not two, but a total of three brand new tablet computers for the home market. Together, these new Toshiba tablets -- known as the "Excite" line -- offer a wide range of display sizes, from a 7.7-inch model, to a 10.1-inch model, up to a 13.3-inch behemoth.

Google's Android On Board

The three devices share a great many specifications.

For example, they all use the Android 4.0 operating system rather than Windows 7, Windows 8, or iOS. They're all powered by quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processors, and each ships with 1GB of RAM. (Source: informationweek.com)

Also on board for all three: a 5-megapixel still camera for photos, a 2-megapixel camera for video work, WiFi and Bluetooth wireless capabilities, stereo speakers, and microUSB ports for transferring information as well as battery recharging.

There are, however, a couple of notable differences between the 10.1-inch and 13.3-inch models on one hand and the 7.7-inch model on the other: the large-display devices provide SD card slots for added storage, while the smaller model sports a tiny microSD port.

Also, the 13.3-inch and 10.1-inch models can be purchased with either a 32GB or a 64GB hard drive. The 7.7-inch model comes with either a 16GB or a 32GB disk.

All three displays are protected with Corning's Gorilla Glass, which recently made headlines when Hewlett-Packard wrapped it around the entire HP Envy 14 Spectre ultrabook.

Toshiba Gambling On Consumer Reception

All things considered, the Toshiba tablets appear to be relatively powerful devices that should receive plenty of attention from consumers when they begin to ship, in a few months.

But some experts question whether a 13.3-inch display is really necessary on a tablet computer.

Toshiba answers quite simply: "One size does not fit all, so we are carefully considering how and where people are using tablets and designing form factors to best suit various needs." (Source: informationweek.com)

It's thought that Toshiba has studied the growing tablet market and noticed that no other manufacturer as yet has gambled on a display of this size. If the gamble pays off, the large-scale tablet could give its vendor a significant advantage over its many rivals, including Apple. (Source: businessweek.com)