ViewSonic: G-Tablet isn't defective, just buggy

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Many tech enthusiasts expressed an interest in ViewSonic's G-Tablet when it debuted as it marked one of the first slates available with Nvidia's Tegra 2 SoC. Unfortunately, the device kicked off to a rocky start after performance issues prompted a significant number of users to request a refund. In fact, so many customers returned the product that Staples felt compelled to yank the G-Tablet off its store shelves citing a "manufacturing defect."

ViewSonic refuted claims of a hardware defect this week by suggesting that the G-Tablet only suffers from a "user experience" issue -- in other words, the device was shipped with half-baked software. "While [users] love the hardware, they raised several issues about the user interface," the company said. Speaking with Engadget, ViewSonic VP of Marketing Adam Hanin partly blamed the issue on Google's current lack of support for tablets.

Hanin explained that companies such as ViewSonic have to "go out and put together their own software and app stores." While Google's existing Android platform doesn't officially support tablets, ViewSonic can't realistically shift blame. Nobody forced the company to develop and market a slate with Froyo. Nonetheless, ViewSonic said its software partner is working on an update to address customer concerns and add more interface functionality.

"Customers will have the flexibility to use both a standard Android interface as well as a user-customizable interface which has been significantly enhanced since the product launch." G-Tablet owners should be prompted to download the update via Wi-Fi Friday, December 24, while a manual download will be available via ViewSonic.com/gtablet. The company also noted that Adobe-certified Flash support is coming by the end of January.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/41693-viewsonic-g-tablet-isnt-defective-just-buggy.html

 

[Guest]

why blame google for a faulty "user experience"?

if the OS that powered the tablet is not ready, then don't sell the tablet...

own up the mistake and apologize to the consumer, viewsonic...

 

[ElShotte]

I am having difficulty comprehending the logic behind ViewSonic's excuse. They claim that Android 2.2 (Froyo) is not ready for tablets, yet it works flawlessly on touchscreen phones? Last time I checked, isn't a touchscreen phone a mini-tablet? I mean really, take your standard touchscreen phone, strip down the hardware that allows it to make and receive phone calls and make the screen a couple times bigger, there's your tablet. I really don't think their excuse is a valid one.

 

[KG363]

lol, It's broken, just not physically

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

This is why i'm waiting for not only more tablets to come out, but a solid OS for them as well. I'd really prefer a Windows 7 tablet but am willing to try the Android based ones. I've played with the Samsung Tab but its just too much money and i'm still not sold on Android OS yet. The only reason I want a Windows Tab is the huge amount of apps you can buy, not to mention flexibility and customiziability of the OS compared to others...

 

[fpsgamerJR62]

Viewsonic is a hardware company and their initial entry into the Android tablet market shows their inexperience in the software market. Their software partner was clearly not up to task of creating a custom UI for Froyo to take advantage of the capabilities of the Tegra 2 SoC.

 

[Guest]

Just visit the XDA forums, I rooted and installed a custom rom in 45 minutes. Now the Gtab is super fast and I can do a heck more with it. It's fun as hell now, the tapntap just plain sucks thats all. Why they didn't use vanilla android...

 

[Guest]

I did the same as mentioned above.. There are 3 competitive Custom ROMs (after rooting) out there that each have thier own benifits. The one I chose allows me to use android Market, 10.1 flash and most importantly allows me to play "Angery Birds" during boring staff meetings in full size HD.

Once you toss the out-of -the box ROM and do some minor graphics tweaks..the G-Tablet becomes one mean machine.