Panasonic Reveals Toughbook Tablet: Take That, iPad!

It's funny how history repeats itself. Rugged tablets have been around for ages. They first hit around a decade or so ago, underpowered and with terrible battery life. they were chunky, rugged, and ready for the field. But no one bought into them, as their flaws superseded the pros. Panasonic has now announced that things are coming full circle, with the Toughbook entering the tablet space soon.

The company recently announced that a future Toughbook Tablet would be shipping in order to address a current gap by delivering a product designed with security, functionality and real-world reliability in mind. By delivering this purpose-built business solution, the new Toughbook tablet will appeal to a wide variety of users, including mission critical government personnel, highly mobile field forces, SMB's looking for a competitive edge, security conscious IT managers and bottom-line focused CFOs. The new tablet will also include an active stylus, allowing mobile workers in sales, customer service and mobile point-of-sale environments to capture signatures on the device's 10.1" XGA multi-touch display.

Other features to be offered on the Toughbook tablet include satellite-based GPS, full-shift battery life, professional-grade accessories and optional embedded 3G/4G mobile broadband connectivity. It'll ship for an undisclosed amount...well, that's the mystery. The company hasn't come clean with an actual launch date, but we're definitely looking forward to it.