Toshiba Folio 100 tablet is bitter pill for Dixons as users refuse to swallow fault

Is the tablet honeymoon over? It seems not everyone is in love with tablets since the Apple iPad just went ahead and turned the whole world upside down with nary a by-your-leave. Dixons has yanked the Toshiba Folio 100 from its shelves -- but not before comically tripling the price to discourage anybody from buying it.

We expected the Folio 100 to be a decent little runaround -- after all, it's Toshiba, the technology enormocorp. We're not talking about a cheapo tablet from Next, or even the Dixons own-brand Advent Vega and Amico. Dixons isn't saying, but we understand returns are based on specific technical issues.

One of our readers, Dede, told us his Folio "had a problem with the menu button which had a mind of its own. PC World had been notified of a fault, so I took it back with no problem." Lack of Flash and Android Market built-in have also disappointed customers, leading us to wonder: have customers been spoiled by the iPad's user experience when shopping for cheaper alternatives?

The 10.1-inch Folio packs Android 2.2, a 1.3-megapixel camera and 16GB of memory. It takes SD cards and includes a mini-HDMI connection, USB 2.0, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. At £330, it clocked in cheaper than the iPad and the feature-packed Samsung Galaxy Tab, although Dixons momentarily boosted the price to £1,000 -- the thinking being, no-one can return it if no-one can afford it.

Toshiba told us it's "aware of reports regarding customer returns of the Folio 100, and is currently working with Dixons to provide a solution. An update on availability will be provided in due course."

Fortunately for disappointed Folio followers, there's no shortage of other Android tablets to choose from, while a new 3.0 version of the software designed specifically for tablets -- called Honeycomb -- is also in the pipeline. Sadly, none of this is good enough for Damon Albarn.