Last year, GameStop made an announcement that it would be collaborating with Wikipad Inc to market a 10.1″ Android tablet featuring a detachable controller. This controller is designed to wrap around the edges, giving a rough resemblance to a Wii U GamePad.
The Wikipad was initially expected to hit the market on Halloween last year, with an iPad-esque premium price tag of $500. However, on the supposed release date, the product was nowhere in sight. Subsequently, the company issued a statement claiming that it required a “minor refinement”.
Now, the Wikipad has been re-announced. This time, it comes with a 7″ screen, but at a significantly reduced price of $249, which is only half of the original expected price. It is scheduled to be launched this spring.
Despite the change in screen size, the tablet retains the exact same specifications as before. It is still powered by Nvidia Tegra 3, making it optimized for cloud gaming. It comes with 16 GB of memory and a micro SD slot that can support an additional 32 GB of storage. The estimated battery life is eight hours.
So, what caused the delay? Fraser Townley, the president of sales at Wikipad, informed Joystiq that there was “an unforeseen flaw” in the original design. He remained tight-lipped about the exact nature of the flaw, but assured The Verge that it “has absolutely, totally, 100 per cent been ironed out”.
“We could have put the product on the market and faced a permanent failure… or we could have addressed the issue and achieved success,” said Townley. “Under these circumstances, we had no other option. We were not going to introduce a product to the market that fails mechanically.”
Townley also mentioned that the 10″ tablet is still in the pipeline and he hopes to launch it later this year.
Wikipad has formed partnerships with PlayStation Mobile, Big Fish Games, Google Play, and OnLive. A comprehensive list of games optimized for the controller can be found on Wikipad’s official website.
