Staples removes ViewSonic gTablet from stores

Word is going around that Staples has already issued the order to stop selling ViewSonic gTablet in their stores due to a manufacturing defect, and it remains to be seen whether the gTablet will effectively make a comeback, or will ViewSonic have to come up with a successor in order to overcome this so called manufacturing defect. When contacted, neither Staples nor Viewsonic managed to cough up an explaination on what the flaw was about, or whether the gTablet would make a return fixed and proper. Will this affect the Android operating system’s popularity when it comes to tablet devices? Perhaps, as UK retailers also recently removed the NVIDIA Tegra 2-powered Toshiba Folio 100 after stores received a sizeable amount of complaints concerning defects and overall poor build quality. This could very well be why Google has already issued an advisory to its partners on not creating Android 2.2 tablets, and we’re still waiting to kill our cat (read: curiousity) to find out what really happened.

Update: ViewSonic says that the G Tablet was pulled not because of a hardware defect, but due to a user experience issue. According to ViewSonic, “We believe it is the user experience that caused all the returns, and we are taking important steps forward with the G Tablet.” That’s good, and some of the steps would involve rolling out an over-the-air software update before the week is over, while offering links for users to manually download and install a beta version of Flash on its support page. Hopefully these will iron out whatever kinks there are at the moment – and for food.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Tablet, viewsonic