take two tablets..

On the back of the post on the ipad is this alternative tablet / pad affair I just saw on Mashable:

http://mashable.com/2010/06/03/kno-tablet/

The Kno is a dual screen tablet aimed at the student market.

My first reaction was that it looks a bit cumbersome – but thinking about it a bit more it could actually be a go-er.
That’s because the Kno, although heavier than (say) an ipad, is still a lot lighter than 2 or 3 (or more?) big textbooks plus the netbook that a student will lug around during their academic career.
And it tries to mimic ‘real life’ in that the double page spread is a natural way to read text books.
Being web enabled enriches the learning experience also.
It also has lots of note taking / memo / browsing functionaly built in, to make academic books dynamic ‘live’ things.

To balance that though – coming out relatively ‘late’ on the back of the huge amount of spend on getting the ipad and other mono-screen devices into market, is not the best of timing for these guys.
Students may not see the high price tag (much higher than netbooks or even the ipad) as a good trade-off for the conveience of shedding paper books.

But In terms of understanding the market / mindset of the student audience, the founders of the business Osman Rashid and Babur Habib are well placed , they have experience on the textbook content arena : I think I’m right in saying they setup the textbook rental business chegg.com.

shameless plug disclaimer : If the guys at Kno read this and want to send over a sample from the States .. I have kids old enough to make use of it as beta testers

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=12223465&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Kno Movie from Kno, Inc. on Vimeo.