Remember the promised sub-100 tablet? It's here!

When was it? Around January this year I think that a slew of articles hit the American IT press about VIA's Wondermedia chip's impending arrival in the US market in tablets that would cost US$100 or less. Finally, one product is actually available. The Maylong M-150 features a VIA Wondermedia VM8505+, 256MB RAM, Wi-Fi, SD card slot, Ethernet port and USB. It's a handy 7-inch touchscreen and it also comes with a stylus.

Compared to the iPad it's smaller and weighs less and one would presume the screen is not as lovely as the iPad's. It also runs Android, which is not such a bad thing since there are heaps of great Android apps, but it's an older version of Android and the rumor is that it can't beupdated.

The device is being brought to US consumers via Walgreens, a store I was previously unfamiliar with. It looks to be like our version of Priceline - although bigger (of course!).

The odd thing is that they're not selling the tablet in stores, just via their website. All up it costs you US$104.98 with home delivery. So when you're logged in to get your prescriptions filled online you can also pick up a tablet ... er tablet PC that is!

Sadly, Walgreens don't ship to Australia ... damn ... aren't we the 51st state of the US!!? (not)

VIA Wondermedia finds itself inside shrunken Apple iPad wanabe

When VIA's VP of marketing did the rounds earlier in the year to promote VIA Wondermedia's chips being used for sub-100 US dollar tablets, he didn't mention this one from ... who is it from? Like many Chinese manufacturers who release tablets that clearly resemble the iPad, when news and photos of them finally reaches English language media, their names are often absent from the picture.

This lovely looking tablet is a bit smaller than the Apple iPad, having a 7-inch screen and there are a few other glaring differences as well. Inside is the VIA 8505 chipset, 256MB memory and 2GB flash storage. It run a slightly older version of Android, v1.6.

I spotted this over at the English language shanzai.com site but traced it back (from their listed source) to this Chinese language site which interestingly, right at the very end lists a contact number for a Mr Li who can supply you with them! I wonder if he'll ship to Australia?