You may not know Alessi for its home technology products, but the company hopes its new Alessi Tab makes a splash in the market.
The Alessi brand might be a new name in the world of home automation, but it marks one of the success stories of the “Factories of Italian Design.”
Since 1935, the company has been a symbol of inventive and design mainly for home furnishings, with a concentration on kitchenware. Recently, Alessi has taken their design expertise into new markets, from designer phones and watches to the newly released Alessi Tab.
The Alessi Tab, a high-tech tablet that reminds many of Apple’s iPad, is the company’s first foray into home technology.
A Tablet Designed For the Home
While the Alessi Tab lets you surf the Internet, read e-mails and view multimedia content, some of its functions and its design make it particularly suitable for home technology applications.
Increasingly, customers who install a home automation system want to have remote access and control of most — if not all — the functions of their homes.
The number of these requests is growing exponentially, and almost all of this demand is met by products from Apple, through applications designed for the iPhone or the iPad. The latter is also proving to be a viable alternative to wall mounted touch-screen panels, becoming a sort of “remote control” that can handle all functions of a modern home installation, from anywhere in the home or garden.
But it’s the Alessi Tab’s eclecticism, compliments of its Android operating system (open-source software where anyone can create their own control applications), that holds the potential to generate real excitement in our market.
The Alessi Tab becomes an alternative with some advantages over the aforementioned iPad: unlike the latter (whose applications are limited by the approval of Apple), it allows virtually anyone to develop software and dedicated functions, because it relies on an open technology.
Its design was created to integrate into a modern house, with the option to stand it up in an upright position, allowing you to use it with only one hand. It’s also priced below the competition at €399.
The Company Behind the Alessi Tab
While it may seem odd that a company known for its kitchen products is releasing an Android-based tablet, Alessi sees it as a way to expand to new markets while keeping true to its core mission and design sensibilities.
“Over the years, we have actively created new markets with products that are a result of outside-the-box thinking, which have been successful because of their design and function,” says Matteo Alessi, Trade Marketing and International Development Director of Alessi.
“The Alessi Tab is another one of these challenges: a beautiful tool with advanced technological capabilities, which can be used by all members of the family and become an integral part of the house.”
Technical features:
- 10.1″ capacitive Touchscreen Display
- Auto-rotation with gravitational sensor
- Google Android v. 2.1 Operating System
- 1 GB internal memory
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g connection
- DVB-T with antenna
- Integrated microphone and camera
- HD support with HDMI output
- USB Port / SD card
- Rechargeable battery
- Digital frame
- Widgets (news, weather forecasts, recipes, clock, alarm, timer)
- Software update via network (OTA)
Bundled apps (continuously growing)
- ANSA news and weather
- Editoriale Domus – Il Cucchiaio d’Argento
- DOKI
- Radiotime 13,000 radio stations across the world
- INRAN Italian National Research Institute for Food and Nutrition
by Leonardo Norsa
More references:
www.cea-thm.com/
