Motorola demos ET1 Android enterprise tablet

Motorola Solutions has demoed its ET1, a ruggedised Android-based tablet with a 7-inch touchscreen, which targets the enterprise market and will be available in January 2012.

The tablet is the company's first enterprise focused Android device – all previous Motorola rugged handheld devices ran Windows Mobile or Windows CE.

The ET1 is A5 size and has a 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution LCD touchscreen and a 1GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of system memory running the Android v2.3.4 (Gingerbread) operating system.

Motorola's EMEA mobile computing product manager Paul Reed said: "Windows Mobile is out there, it's being used and enterprises are depending on it, so moving into the Android market is new for us," he added.

The tablet will specifically target the retail sector, and independent software vendors and resellers will be encouraged to directly install applications to target that or other specific vertical markets such as healthcare or field service operations.

However, the ET1 Motorola will not allow users to download apps from the Android Market, thereby assuaging IT managers' fears around the download of malicious applications. Second, the tablet will help to address concerns around security by using encryption on the device itself and on the 1GB microSD card that will ship with the product.

“Different users will have different OS privileges; users will only be presented with the applications that are appropriate for them,” explained Reed.

“There’s a fully comprehensive service contract with the ET1 and we anticipate a six-year supported lifecycle for the device,” said Reed, who added: "The ET1’s display surround can also be customised by firms for branding purposes.”

There is as yet no mobile broadband connectivity with the tablet but Reed said there would be wide area functionality incorporated at a later date.

The ET1 currently has just Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for network communications, but there is a module on the back of the device that is able to take on different hardware adaptors, such as LAN connectors or RFID readers.

Motorola’s enterprise tablet also has a hot-swappable, laptop-sized 4.2Ah lithium ion battery, which Reed said should be good for eight hours of general use. "We also have a four-slot battery charging tray so users can swap out the battery if necessary," he said.

The ET1 has dual cameras; a front-facing low resolution VGA-capable camera, and a high resolution 8–megapixel model on the rear, controlled by two buttons – also on the rear – giving barcode reading capabilities.

As well as the microSD slot, there’s a micro USB port and a full sized HDMI port for connection to high-resolution TV screens.

Aside from the standard hardware buttons available on Android tablets, Motorola has also put three programmable hardware buttons on the front of the device, which application developers can use to add to their app’s feature set, or as quick-start buttons for quickly firing up applications.

Hundreds of Android tablets have been released onto the consumer market, and Motorola’s other arm, Motorola Mobility, released the consumer oriented Android-based Xoom, which had a 10.1-inch display, earlier in January.

Few Android tablets have been made specifically for the enterprise market, among them Avaya's Desktop Video Device (DVD) and Cisco’s Cius – both launched September 2010, and both made for enterprise unified communications.

RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet also targeted enterprises – primarily boardroom executives – and used the QNX operating system.

The ET1 is priced at $1,595 (£1,025), but Motorola said large orders could bring the price down to about $1,000 (£640).