3:25 PM Secretive tablet company promises to shake up the market. Should you care?

Dan Jones, Mobile Editor

August 3, 2011

1 Min Read
The Mystery of TabCo

3:25 PM -- A secretive outfit calling itself TabCo has been prodding and teasing about how it will deliver a new tablet to shake up the market on Aug. 15.

TabCo puts up videos like this new "Lemmings" spot on its YouTube channel on a regular basis. The newest video portrays tablet users as stupid rodents doing the same old thing with their Web pads before following the crowd off the side of a cliff:



A pretty harsh judgment call on what are essentially early adopters in a very new market segment. So, can TabCo live up to its promise to deliver something different from the Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad and Android tablets?

There aren't many hints yet: The ads mention an "intuitive keyboard" and show that the device is thin and shaped much like a standard tablet. Still, there are definitely ways to innovate in the tablet market, even with simple features like more ways to connect the tablet to the outside world.

What features would sell you on a new tablet, readers?

There's also speculation that "TabCo" could be a front for Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) or Motorola. Having watched a lot of the teasers for TabCo now, however, it seems to have more of a newer-company feel to me, rather than the production values of a massive organization.

Purely a hunch on my part right now though. A Whois look-up certainly doesn't offer many clues.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile

About the Author(s)

Dan Jones

Mobile Editor

Dan is to hats what Will.I.Am is to ridiculous eyewear. Fedora, trilby, tam-o-shanter -- all have graced the Jones pate during his career as the go-to purveyor of mobile essentials.

But hey, Dan is so much more than 4G maps and state-of-the-art headgear. Before joining the Light Reading team in 2002 he was an award-winning cult hit on Broadway (with four 'Toni' awards, two 'Emma' gongs and a 'Brian' to his name) with his one-man show, "Dan Sings the Show Tunes."

His perfectly crafted blogs, falling under the "Jonestown" banner, have been compared to the works of Chekhov. But only by Dan.

He lives in Brooklyn with cats.

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