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The TouchSlatePC
Pakistan is known for a lot of things. However one of the areas it isn’t known for, is innovation in hardware, which is why when Sohail Abid sent a Tweet out about Alternate Gear and their Slate PC, we were intrigued enough to get in touch with the company.
Waqar Qureshi is the Managing Partner at Alternate-Gear and is the person responsible for the design, development, strategy, investment of 3G Mobile Touch Screen Slate PC, and USB-Net share Routers. Though he has lived abroad for much of his life, his area of expertise has always been Telecom infrastructure Amps, GSM, CDMA/Evdo, WiMAX, HFC, FTTH and LDI.
His company launched the 3G Slate PC in Pakistan in July 2009 along with launched the first 3G USB-Netshare Router to share bandwidth from PTCL’s EVO, Worldcall Dongle, Wi-tribe, Wateen, Qubee, Telenor, Ufone, Warid, Zong dongles with 250 subscribers. As with many professionals working abroad, when family called, he returned with the willingness to experience a new market.
The Touch Slate is an Intel Atom-based 3G PC that has a 667mhz processor. It’s got 2 USB interfaces, a sim card slot, a 10.2” TFT LCD Touchscreen that has a resolution of 1024×600 and a high def camera. You’ve got WiFi and a battery that lasts 2.5 hours with an optional add-on that can take you upto 10 hours. It’s 226.3mm inlength, 166.9mm wide, 24.7mmhigh, runs Ubuntu and costs less than $500. But that’s not the best part; what is, however, is the fact that all this is made in Pakistan.
With so many other existing brands, what made you think of creating a Touch Slate PC?
There is no competition out there right now – they all are in design stage. Apple’s iPad is designed for internet browsing and multimedia, whereas Alternate Gear’s TouchSlate is designed for handwriting-to-text-conversion and is a complete replacement of a laptop or desktop.
You are running a Linux Ubuntu Operating System on the laptop – Considering the Ubuntu penetration into the consumer market, what’s the target audience for this?
We have customized the UBUNTU OS to feel and work like Windows OS. One major reason was the price of Windows 7 for touch screen is approximately US$ 110, which is 1/4th the price of the complete machine, and we have yet to find a customer willing to pay for the Windows OS. We installed Open Office and can install all Windows-based software through WINE, hence all Windows machine file formats are supported and interchangeable with those on our machine without any issues.
Could you talk us through the technical specs you have used to build the machine?
The idea was simple: to simplify the use of computer hardware and software to the extent that anyone with the basic need for using the machine for drawing, handwriting and emails to the sophisticated use by skilled professions. The technology will remain valid for the next 5 years. Despite a 25% compounded Sales and Income Taxes, the price will be comfortable for even the student community in Pakistan
Why have you selected an Atom-based processor for the Touch Slate PC?
The main reason is to have easy access to a reasonably-priced platform which will continue to evolve over the next 5 years with multiple vendors and suppliers.
What about battery life and performance? How would you rate it as compared to a smart phone or available Netbook?
Battery life is a maximum of 2.5 hours. We compromised on battery to keep the price within our target of US$ 500. We do offer a car charger for Rs. 1,500 and an external 20amp USB battery capable of providing power for 10 hours for US$ 100 as peripherals.
If it is such an efficient and thin client, what is stopping it from having its architecture replicated by existing brands, which might help make it scalable and perhaps even cheaper in terms of manufacturing?
As you know many people are working on their own designs: Blackberry, Samsung, Nokia, Dell, Toshiba, Microsoft and each targets a different type of consumer. Our target is the average Pakistan.
Do you think people are aware of the product?
We are a small company and our motto is simple: honest business with complete, no questions asked refund policy during the warranty period. We’re hoping our business metholodology and our product spread will help get the word out virally.
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13 Responses to Gear up for Alternate Gear
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Amazing,,
where can I buy one?
You should be able to do so from their website.. It’s alternate-gear.com
I think Dell needs to rethink it’s business model, PC’s are a dying product so they should “boldly go” where they haven’t been before; like Cisco
http://bit.ly/aSmqo2
woo amazing Stuff. .. . . it has all the features one can actually imagine, duh we Should Encourage Such innovations our Country needs to grow in Such areas so that an ordinary person can proudly say that its a Pakistani made …….
How it is better from $500 Droid x which has 1ghz snapdragon processor,andriod ,HDMI connector,captures video in 720p HD, can be used as wifi router, you can watch HD videos on it and best of all it is made in USA which means high quality standards.This alternate gear thing is made in china (maybe) look at this http://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Tablet-PC/p/sm/1033721176.htm
I would prefer a smartphone over this.
dear huzaifa!!
the product u’ve mentioned is a china made with maximum memory of 32GB. The Slate has 160GB of hard Drive and can be extended upto 320GB, also it has 1GB or RAM can be extended upto 2GB and all of the above it has a 1 Year Warrenty… I dnt thing that your mentioned product has all these stuff in it. And one more thing, ur mentioned product dnt have a SIM Module in it. So please read the full specs and thn compare it with other Products.
I think you have not read my message carefully, my first question is how it is better from $500 Droid X ? and you are saying that the product do not have 160 hard disk and 1 gb ram , brother the link I have provided is a company who who deals in OEM you can order the tablet pc with them and all the specs are upgradeable.
Further more this product is not made in Pakistan.
Sorry Ryan, Pakistani companies are more interested in misleading our Nation just like Alternate Gear
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/323472175-Q806M-R2-H250-10-2inch-tablet-pc-with-multi-touching-panel-wholesalers.html
This product is imported from China, even they did not changed the pictures in there article and after reading this comment of they claim it is made in Pakistan then I am really interested in watching the production live?
Thanks
1. how is it better than a US$ 500 Droid? Ours is a Dual Boot Windows 7 (Trial) and UBUNTU (customized) with a FSB of 667MHz and a Dual Core (Simulation) N270 Intel Processor. The unique feature is that on UBUNTU, when required, it automatically makes the FSB to 800MHz. You would be very surprised like Sony, like Intel, etc., who have bench marked our product with similar machines and found ours to be very fast. 2. You can customize from the Chinese source as you said, the price would be higher with higher specifications, so wont be a US% 500 machine. The Freight is atleasst US$ 60, add 25% as sales tax, added sales tax, income tax, even on the US$ 500 you get a price of US$ 700 and are left with an inferior machine without warranty and support. 3. Pakistan made: we buy the Board from Intel, the Touch Screen and LED, Charger, Camera & Mic, Body from Taiwan, 3G/Edge/GSM Module from Sierra Wireless USA, RAM 667MHz from Kingston or Samsung, and Hard disk from Western Digital. The Wifi Module is from Realtech, Battery is from Sony Japan. We Put it all together in Pakistan, and install, test, configure the Machines to perform in Pakistan.
Most important is that we have 1 year of field/commercial experience with this product, when no one in the World had even worked on this type of design, took us a long time to go up the learning curve, and we provide employment, training, and business services by Pakistanis, for Pakistanis, and pay tax so our Country can grow in this field.
Hope this answers your questions, please feel free to contact us for any further information you may require.
regards
Waqar A. Qureshi, Managing Partner
Alternate Gear
http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/323472175-Q806M-R2-H250-10-2inch-tablet-pc-with-multi-touching-panel-wholesalers.html
This product is imported from China, even you did not changed the pictures in the article and after reading this comment of you claim that it is made in Pakistan then I am really interested in watching the production live?
At least take time and write the specifications by yourself do not copy paste
http://alternate-gear.com/Slate.html
If you want to prove that I am wrong then tell me where you manufacture this product and I will be there to see it in production. I am also engaged in this import business from last few years I know how to surf Alibaba and select a product to import. Seriously, you made the touch slate?