Dubai: Most of the business travellers don’t use a regular laptop and use the two-in-one device (tablet/laptop hybrid) as it is light and offers more battery life, said Gene Jijao, Regional President for Huawei Consumer Business Group.
“It is the trend already across the globe and I haven’t seen business people carrying the laptop and the heavy power adapter with them,” he said.
Huawei, which unveiled its 12-inch MateBook at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, is launching the device in the UAE in June.
MateBook is essentially a premium business tablet that transforms into a full-blown Windows 10 laptop when connected to a keyboard cover accessory, a concept made popular by Microsoft’s Surface line-up.
Jijao said that Huawei has successfully channelled its comprehensive experience and excellence in building premium mobile products into the needs of the modern business environment.
He defines MateBook as a mobile productivity tool that seamlessly integrates mobility, high efficiency, work and entertainment.
Huawei has also thrown in an optional pressure-sensitive stylus accessory — on similar lines — into the package.
At 640 grams, it is lighter than the 713-gram iPad Pro and 766-gram Surface Pro 4 from Microsoft.
It will be priced from $699 to $1,599, depending on the specs and storage capacity. The device features a sixth Generation Intel Core M-series dual-core processor up to 3.1GHz speed, from 4GB to 8GB RAM, and from 128GB to 512GB storage capacity.
According to research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), the UAE tablet sale is expected to grow by four per cent to 447,566 units compared to 428,294 units.
“The growth is due to the detachable tablets [tablets with detachable keyboards] that are gaining importance. Otherwise, the bigger screen sizes of today’s smartphones continue to cannibalise spending on traditional slate tablets,” said Fouad R. Charakla, senior programme manager for personal computing, systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey.
He said that the growth of detachables will further drive the growth of the Windows operating system at the expense of Android and iOS.
