Laptop Thoughts: Engadget's Toshiba Libretto W100 Preview

"The Toshiba Libretto W100 made a guest appearance on the Engadget Show last week, and since we got to spend a bit more time with the dualscreen laptop we thought it was only right to release some more impressions into the ether. We also got confirmation from Toshiba that the somewhat-of-a-concept-PC will be hitting retail channels in August, including Amazon, and will cost $1,100. It may be one of the only dualscreen tablets on the market, but no matter how you break it down that price seems a little outrageous."

Engadget got to spend some more time with the alluring Toshiba Libretto W100, and came away with a few general conclusions; namely, that it's a fairly well-designed device with decent performance, but a killer price tag of $1100. This is the same problem that Microsoft's Courier concept had - I read that they'd have to sell it for $1500, and ultimately that's why it was killed. You can build the neatest technology in the world, but if it's not affordable, the mainstream public isn't going to buy it. Unlike Courier, the Toshiba Libretto W100 is coming to market, but I can't imagine Toshiba selling more than 50,000 of these. As my friend Michael Gartenberg likes to say, you can sell 50,000 of anything.