By Chris Chang, posted Feb 17, 2012 at 6:39 AM, 9,035 views,

Proview Has Manufactured 20,000 ‘iPad’ Devices, And This Is What It Looks Like

Look, you can argue this fact all you want, but a fact it remains: Proview began work on its own “iPAD” product in 1998, and guess what, it is an all-in-one computer that looks like Apple’s Fruity iMac.

UPDATE: Proview’s iPad hands-on review.

Here’s what the advertisement for the iPAD says,

“The iPAD development constructs on the dream of technology founded human spirit. To make use of advance serial products, people can explore the infinite imagination of virtual reality. It is the strong leading trend and nobody can resist the charming of iPAD. The effect on iPAD is over-whelming in the human history. The real internet PC life just started and already indispensable exist in our life.”

While’s Proview’s iPAD (Internet Personal Access Device) doesn’t look anything like Apple’s iPad — or any kind of tablets in the market today, for that matter — it does bear a striking resemblance to Apple’s fruity iMac, which happened to also have been first introduced in 1998. So, Proview’s iPAD is an all-in-one computer that features a 15-inch (800 x 600) CRT monitor, has a processor running at 265MHz, comes with 32MB DRAM, 16GB DOM flash card for storage purpose, two USB ports, two RJ-11 jacks, Ethernet port, headphone and mic ports, two PS/2 keyboard/mouse ports, and a parallel port for connecting printers.

Most interestingly, Proview’s iPAD computer comes in three versions — WBT., Winner, Master. The Master model includes a 20GB hard drive, rather than a 16GB DOM flash card. Both the Winner and Master models come with Linux OS, while the WBT model comes with CITRIX OS.

What’s more, the iPAD, was a part of Proview’s iFamily line, which also included a notebook device, a personal digital assistant, a DVD player and other devices. Below is an image showing all the iProducts in Proview’s “iFamily”.

All these things are revealed by Proview at a press conference held in Beijing today. Shenzhen Proview Chairman Yang Rongshan, told the local press that the company had spent $30 million on the iPAD computer, and they were producing between 10,000 and 20,000 of them from 1998 until 2009, when the dispute with Apple arose. Well, now we know Proview’s iPAD actually exist.

Source: Sina Tech via The Wall Street Journal