The fall CTIA Enterprise & Apps event going on right now in San Diego doesn’t usually have many consumer-related announcements. True to form, Motorola’s new ET1 Android tablet is firmly aimed at enterprise usage. Nonetheless, the hardware and software features may trickle down to future consumer-level devices from Motorola, so it’s interesting from that perspective.
The ET1 is a ruggedized tablet designed to withstand multiple 4-foot drops, bumps, scratches, and spills. It has a 7-inch Gorilla Glass, multi-touch capacitive display with 1024 x 600 resolution. It has a mount on the back for a handstrap to facilitate use in the field, use on the showroom floor, use during package deliveries, etc. Furthermore, the ET1 has a feature where the RAM retains device data for up to 15 minutes while the battery is hot-swapped. Motorola will also sell docking stations that allow up to 4 devices to be charged at once.
The ET1 has a 1 GHz, dual-core TI OMAP 4 processor with 1 GB RAM, and 4 GB of internal storage. There is also a micro-SD slot which includes a 4 GB micro-SD card, but will support cards up to 32 GB. It’s running Android 2.3.4 and has enterprise-optimized software from Motorola that allows features like multi-user login, remote access and remote wipe for security purposes, usage and time tracking software, and restrict approved application installs. The 8 MP rear camera has autofocus and is suitable for scanning 1D/2D barcodes. It can also record 720p HD video.
There are 2 full-sized USB 2.0 ports, one with an OTG connector, and the other with USB host capability. A full-sized HDMI port is also standard. Rounding out connectivity, the ET1 supports Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, 802.11a/b/g/n, and GPS.
While this device is squarely for enterprise vertical markets, I wonder if Motorola will implement some of the ET1′s features for their consumer-level devices. For example, ever since the iPad came out, there has been an issue of multiple people sharing one tablet in a household. Yet even today, many (all?) tablets still don’t have a way to handle multiple users and multiple sets of apps and/or user settings. The ET1′s multi-user feature would be a welcome addition to future Android tablets.
Also, some more rugged, but sleek tablets would be a nice way to differentiate from the crowd, at the same time offering a truly useful feature for people who are more clumsy or treat their tablets more roughly than expected.
Finally, the remote wipe and remote administration features would be welcome tools for corporate IT departments to use for the consumer-level tablets that companies are allowing onto their corporate networks.
The Motorola ET1 tablet is expected to be available in the 4th quarter of 2011.
Via eWeek
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