I didn't anticipate that the first Asian-produced Maemo internet tablet would meld features from the 770/N800 with UMPC traits -- a 20 GB hard drive and 7-inch size, for example. (Above, the H9 UMPC from Beijing Peace East Technology Development.)

Priced at $490 in lots of 500, the H9 does seem to be the first reasonably priced competitor to the Nokia 770 and N800 Internet Tablets. No clues yet as to whether it can handle the Asian languages that the Nokia devices cannot.

Am I wrong in thinking that this sort of "follow on Nokia's track" is not only inevitable but desirable? It seems to me that the open-source movement is built on the core tenet that people have different visions of how to get the ideal feature set and you have to allow them to build on what you've done or else we're all stuck. So Nokia builds on Debian and Beijing Peace East builds on Maemo.

(Via pocketables.net, engadget and our ITT forums. Thanks to Hedgecore for the heads-up!)