Huawei unveils 7-inch MediaPad Android tablet

Huawei took the wraps off its latest tablet creation, the 7-inch MediaPad, the Chinese vendor's latest and strongest attempt to crack into the consumer tablet market.

Huawei took the wraps off it latest tablet creation, the 7-inch MediaPad

Click here for details on the Huawei 7-inch MediaPad tablet.

The company unveiled the product at a press conference in Singapore, and said it will sell the device globally. A Huawei spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the device will be sold in the U.S. or when Huawei might announce carrier partnerships. Huawei did not reveal a price for the MediaPad.

The MediaPad runs version 3.2 of Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android Honeycomb platform and sports a dual-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) processor. The tablet supports Adobe Flash 10.3 and features 1080p HD video capture, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera and six hours of battery life. While Huawei did not reveal any carrier partnerships, the company said the MediaPad supports HSPA+ 14.4 Mbps connections and Wi-Fi.

For Huawei, the MediaPad represents the company's latest attempt to take on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Samsung and other established device vendors. The company, which is the world's second largest network infrastructure vendor, has been trying to branch out more into consumer devices. Huawei unveiled its first tablet, the Ideos S7, last fall. That device is on sale in Europe and Asia.

In the U.S., where Huawei has continued making entreaties in the infrastructure market, the company has found more favor as a handset supplier. Huawei currently sells its Android-powered Ascend smartphone through both MetroPCS (NASDAQ:PCS) and Leap Wireless' (NASDAQ:LEAP) Cricket, and T-Mobile USA also sells the low-cost Comet Android phone from Huawei.

In other Huawei news, the company is denying allegations that it has had a leg up in the infrastructure business because of $30 billion in export credits from the Chinese Development Bank. U.S. Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg accused the company of making use of the credits.

Bill Plummer, Huawei's vice president of external affairs, told Reuters that the company's customers have attempted to use $4.25 billion of CDB export credits to finance some 35 projects globally since 2005, but he said only $3 billion was approved and that the export credits only extend to potential Huawei customers, not the vendor itself.

For more:
- see this release
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Engadget post

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