Teen designs 17″ tablet PC, seeks investment pledges

Young innovator, James Hartman

Young James Hartman of Los Angeles asks “why are there no large tablets on the market?” He has designed a 17″ tablet PC and launched it on Kickstarter.com to seek pledges for investment with a little bit of help from his father.

Kickstarter.com is “the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects,” wherein projects are posted to the site and anyone with a credit card can pledge money to fund the projects, but the twist is that a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands because “creators aren’t expected to develop their project without necessary funds, and it allows anyone to test concepts without risk.” The site also allows project creators to keep 100 percent ownership over their work and offer products and incentives in return for pledges.

Hartman says, “I’m here to produce the first 17 inch touch-screen Tablet computer for sale. Many DIYers have done similar projects, but there has never been one on the market. Most major PC market analysts say that Tablets will dominate the notebook market in the next five years. Many PC manufactures are attempting to address the Tablet market, but they are missing one key thing. There are no large tablets on the market. I believe that a large Windows Tablet PC will become necessary if Tablets are set to dominate laptops.”

The teen professes his love of desktops for their ability to be upgraded, a major feature that could separate his tablet concept from the herd. “Say I wanted better graphics,” he says, “I buy a better graphics card and pop it in. If I want a larger hard drive, I would buy one and plug it in to the motherboard.”

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Pledges towards the project will go to development of the motherboard and housing, and to further prototyping, and in the video below, Hartman outlines the features of his prototype and all incentives for pledges is outlined on Kickstarter.