Sharp, the Osaka, Japan-based electronics company announced that they do not have any plans to stop its Galapagos tablet line as it launches the newest addition to its tablet devices, the Galapagos EB-A71GJ-B.

This 7-in. tablet is the first of its kind to support WiMax through its Android 3.2 Honeycomb OS. This means that it can connect with a domestic WiMax network and can support up to 7 Wi-Fi capable devices. It has peaks downloads speeds of 40 Mbps and upload speeds of 10 Mbps based on Japan's local operator UQ network. Aside from that, it also has a dual-core Nvidia CPU, 16GB of RAM and weighs around 14 ounces.

The new tablet also features a 1024x600 pixel resolution supporting TFT-LCD capacitive display, inner camera (2MP) and outer camera with LED flash (5MP), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, 1GB of memory, 8GB of internal storage with memory expansion slot, microHDMI port that enables the tablet to connect with larger display, and microUSB for charging or data transfer. It also has different sensors like the ambient light sensor, gyroscopic sensor, orientation sensor and accelerometer. Battery life for this new Galapagos tablet was not specified by Sharp.

Sharp first announced its first tablet last year and introduced it as the advanced e-readers that were limited to the firm's e-book software having some audio and video support. Sharp also announced that their first tablet line could be likened with Apple's iPad or Amazon's Kindle. After the first tablet was released in the market, Sharp then revealed additional two models without replacements. This move leads to the speculation that the company would discontinue their tablet line. Masami Obatake, general manager in one of its consumer product divisions remarked against this speculation disclosing that "We (Sharp) are not withdrawing from the Galapagos business. We are still continuing with development."

The company described this newly-released Galapagos tablet as a "media tablet" because it would include standard tablet applications that would be able to access apps in the Android Market as well as support YouTube and Gmail. The name "Galapagos" is a term that is used to describe the whole Japan's mobile industry which indicates that Japan is continuously developing advanced devices but these devices do not have any success outside Japan. The new Galapagos EB-A71GJ-B will be launched in Japan by Dec. 17 in Japan.

No announcements has been made regarding the retail price for the new Galapagos tablet as well as its availability in other countries.