Russian electronics firm Yota Devices has created a new tablet device, Sergei Chemezov, the head of state technology holding Rostec, told newspaper Vedomosti in an interview published Monday.
"We are working on a tablet. I've already seen it," Chemezov said, adding that one of the Yota Tablet's novel features is the ability to charge a YotaPhone smartphone. Rostec, a massive state conglomerate heavily invested in the defense industry, owns a 25 percent stake in Yota.
Yota first announced it was considering entering the tablet market earlier this year, but so far details on the project are scarce.
In January, Yota Devices CEO Vladislav Martynov said the tablet would likely be expensive, since it would feature screens on both sides of the device. The company's YotaPhone has the same feature and retails for 33,990 rubles ($640), or around the same as the most basic version of Apple's newest iPhone, the iPhone 6.
YotaPhone, which was first launched in December 2013, is a smartphone with a standard LCD screen on one side, and an energy-saving e-ink screen on the other side. E-ink screens are typically featured on e-reader devices such as the Amazon Kindle.
The timing of the project may be inconvenient, however. The number of tablets shipped to Russia dropped 40 percent drop in the first quarter of 2015 as Russia's economic crisis lowered real incomes, news agency RBC reported in mid-May, citing data from analytics firm IDC.?