ASUS reveals TAICHI convertible notebook / tablet
Two displays in one tablet? Yes you can. ASUS' new TAICHI series packs displays on both the front and the rear, letting you use the device in a variety of configurations.
Context & Ripple Effects
ASUS is once again using Computex as its launch stage — a year after its early Computex 2011 tablet teaser set up the Transformer Prime and Padfone reveals — and the TAICHI extends the same playbook into Windows hardware. The dual-display design puts one screen where a notebook lid normally sits and another behind the keyboard, so the machine works as a clamshell, a slate, or both at once.
The reveal lands alongside the Transformer AiO, which dual-boots Android and Windows 8 on the same day, making this Computex a coordinated push to blur every boundary ASUS can find between PC and tablet. Lenovo tried a laptop-tablet combination as far back as its two-chip hybrid in January 2010, but TAICHI's twin-screen approach attacks the problem with shared silicon instead.
First-order effects
- Buyers of high-end ultraportables get a single device that serves as notebook, standalone tablet, and dual-screen presentation unit — directly cannibalizing the separate-tablet purchase ASUS would otherwise sell them.
- Windows 8 OEMs gain a reference point for touch-first designs ahead of the OS launch, since TAICHI's rear screen only makes sense with a touch-optimized interface.
Second-order effects
- Rival PC makers heading into the Windows 8 cycle must now answer the form-factor question — either match multi-mode designs or concede the premium convertible segment to ASUS, which already fields the Transformer keyboard-dock line and Padfone.
- Display suppliers see demand for a new configuration: two full panels per device raises bill-of-materials cost and weight pressure, forcing trade-offs in battery and thickness that component vendors will be asked to price.
Third-order effects
- If multi-screen and dockable hybrids sell, the 'laptop versus tablet' product taxonomy that retailers and reviewers rely on starts collapsing into a spectrum of convertibles, reshaping how PCs are categorized and compared.
- A wave of pre-Windows 8 form-factor experiments could push Microsoft toward tolerating — or encouraging — more divergent hardware designs than the traditional clamshell standard it inherited from Intel-era notebooks.
The trend: PC makers are responding to tablet pressure by dissolving the notebook/tablet boundary itself, with ASUS leading a Computex-era burst of dockable, dual-booting, and dual-screen hybrids.