OLPC and Marvell Tag Team Tablet Market

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization announced that it is working with Marvell to develop a series of low-cost handheld tablets based on the Marvell Moby reference design.

"While devices like eReaders and current tablets are terrific literary, media and entertainment platforms, they don't meet the needs of an educational model based on making things, versus just consuming them. Today's learning environments require robust platforms for computation, content creation and experimentation – and all that at a very low cost," said Dr. Nicholas Negroponte, Founder and Chairman of One Laptop per Child. "Through our partnership with Marvell, OLPC will continue our focus on designing computers that enable children in the developing world to learn through collaboration, as well as providing connectivity to the world's body of knowledge.

OLCP's upcoming slate will consume just 1W of power (compared to 5W on the XO Laptop) and feature a multi-lingual soft keyboard with touch feedback. It will be powered by Marvell's ARMADA 610 application processor and able to crank out 1080p full-HD encode and decode. Other specs include 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM, GPS, 3D graphics, and full Adobe Flash support. No big surprise here, the upcoming tablet will be built around Google's Android platform.

No word on when it will launch, only that OLPC and Marvell are shooting for a sub-$100 price tag.

VIA Predicts Stiff Competition for iPad with $100 Android Tablets

If you're in the market for a low-cost tablet, hang tight, because several affordable models are on the way, says VIA's Richard Brown, vice president of marketing at VIA. In an interview with Bloomberg, Brown said he expects about five different models ranging in price from $100 to $150 to be available in the second half of 2010, all of which will sport a VIA processor inside.

All five models will be built around Google's open-source Android platform, which will play a big role in keeping the overall cost to a minimum.

"The tablet market has been legitimized by Apple," Brown said. "Android is bringing a lot of diversity to the market. There are different sizes and different looks and feels."

Taking down Apple will be no easy task, however, as the Cupertino company has already sold over a million iPads during their first month on sale and just recently launched to an international market. How the upcoming VIA-powered tablets compare remains to be seen, though Brown did say VIA is offering an ARM-based processor the for the new tablets.

IDC Predicts 46 Million Tablet Shipments by 2014

Tablet shipments will reach 7 million units by the end of the year and exceed 46 million in 2014, representing a sixfold increase, market research firm IDC reported on Thursday.

Apple's iPad will be the driving force in pushing tablets to the masses, but so too will tablets becoming differentiated from PCs and smartphones, said Suasan Kevorkian, program director at IDC. According to Kevorkian, apps, content, and services designed for tablets will increase the divide between these devices.

IDC's numbers might even be a bit conservative. Apple has already sold over a million iPads, and that was just in the first 28 days, and also before the international launch. In addition, several other players are taking aim at the tablet market, including Hewlett-Packard, Asus, Lenovo, and others, all with different screen sizes and OSes (Android, webOS, and Windows).

ARM Expects to Power Half of all Tablet PCs in 2011

Intel's Atom architecture has pretty much become ubiquitous with netbooks, and with tablets shaping up to be the next biggest fad in mobile computing, you can bet the Santa Clara chip maker will look to duplicate its success. Standing in Intel's way, however, is ARM.

ARM has no intention of letting Intel dominate the tablet PC sector the way it has netbooks, and according to Bob Morris, ARM's director of Mobile Computing, ARM processors will wiggle their way into 50 percent of global tablet PCs by 2011.

That works out to a lot of tablets. By Morris' estimation, global tablet PC shipments will total 4 million units by the end of 2010, and then balloon to 21 million units in 2011. Morris also said that Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Sharp have already adopted ARM-based processors for their smartbooks and tablets.

Asus Eee PC T101MT Budget Touchscreen Tablet Available Soon

Tablet or netbook? Asus' upcoming convertible Eee PC T101MT is a little of both, and if Amazon's German portal is any indication, it's just about ready to ship.

Amazon's listing has the tablet pegged at 12.1 inches, but it's actually a 10.1-inch display. It's also touchscreen capable, hence the tablet talk, and includes an Intel Atom N450 processor (1.6GHz), 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, Intel GMA3150 graphics, and Windows 7 Home Premium. In other words, everything you would expect out of a modern day netbook.

Don't be alarmed by the pre-order price, which is listed at 499 Euros, or a little less than $690. We suspect it will sell for $100+ less once it goes stateside.

Image Credit: liliputing.com

WePad to Ship this Summer

German manufacturer Neofonie revealed a few more details about its upcoming Android-based WePad, including a general ship date. If all goes to plan, the WePad will make its debut sometime in July followed by volume shipments in August, just in time for the back to school rush.

We still don't know how much it's going to cost, but according to news and rumor site Fudzilla, initial listings show the tablet checking in at around $570 after the exchange rate. We haven't seen any listings ourselves, but if that is how much the WePad ends up selling for, it might have a tough time competing against lower priced models, including Apple's $500 entry-level iPad.

On the hardware front, the WePad will sport an Intel Atom N450 processor clocked at 1.66GHz, 1GB of memory, 16GB of flash storage, an SDHC card slot, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a pair of USB ports. The 11.6-inch screen is slightly larger than the iPad's, and at 800g, it doesn't weight a ton more either.

WePad to Ship this Summer

German manufacturer Neofonie revealed a few more details about its upcoming Android-based WePad, including a general ship date. If all goes to plan, the WePad will make its debut sometime in July followed by volume shipments in August, just in time for the back to school rush.

We still don't know how much it's going to cost, but according to news and rumor site Fudzilla, initial listings show the tablet checking in at around $570 after the exchange rate. We haven't seen any listings ourselves, but if that is how much the WePad ends up selling for, it might have a tough time competing against lower priced models, including Apple's $500 entry-level iPad.

On the hardware front, the WePad will sport an Intel Atom N450 processor clocked at 1.66GHz, 1GB of memory, 16GB of flash storage, an SDHC card slot, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a pair of USB ports. The 11.6-inch screen is slightly larger than the iPad's, and at 800g, it doesn't weight a ton more either.

Asus Eee PC T101MT Budget Touchscreen Tablet Available Soon

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com

Tablet or netbook? Asus' upcoming convertible Eee PC T101MT is a little of both, and if Amazon's German portal is any indication, it's just about ready to ship.

Amazon's listing has the tablet pegged at 12.1 inches, but it's actually a 10.1-inch display. It's also touchscreen capable, hence the tablet talk, and includes an Intel Atom N450 processor (1.6GHz), 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, Intel GMA3150 graphics, and Windows 7 Home Premium. In other words, everything you would expect out of a modern day netbook.

Don't be alarmed by the pre-order price, which is listed at 499 Euros, or a little less than $690. We suspect it will sell for $100+ less once it goes stateside.

Image Credit: liliputing.com

Handheld Announces Rugged, Gobi-Ready Algiz 7 Tablet PC

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com

We've been having flashbacks of when netbooks first became a hot ticket item and every day brought forth a new product release. Now it's time for tablet PCs to sit in the limelight, and the latest to join the crowd is Handheld's 7-inch Algiz.

Unlike other tablets of late, the smaller sized Algiz sports a comparatively rugged design. Perhaps because of this, the Handheld eschewed touch support and instead opted for physical buttons shoved over to the side of the screen.

On the hardware side, the Algiz packs an Intel Atom processor clocked at 1.6GHz, 2GB of RAM, an onboard 64GB SSD, 2MP camera, a 3G module, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS sensor, and is Gobi 2000-ready so users can connect to GSM and CDMA wireless networks wherever there's a cellphone signal.

Getting back to the tablet's ruggedness, Handheld says the Algiz has been IP65 and MIL-STD-810G certified.

Look for the Algiz to start shipping in March for an as-yet undetermined price.

Image Credit: Handheld

With Netbook Navigator's Nav 9 Tablet's Multitasking Comes Bulk and Price

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com

What a strange and topsy-turvy world we live in when a competing product from Apple can be considered a bargain next to its PC (as in, Windows) counterpart. What are we talking about?

Behold Netbook Navigator's Nav 9, the new 9-inch tablet which sticks it to Apple's iPad with the ability to multitask. But at $1,200, you had to be seriously committed to multitasking, because you would have been paying twice as much as Apple's entry-level iPad.

Wondering what's with the past tense? Well, the Nav 9 has been given a recent price drop bringing the base model down to a more affordable $799. Still expensive, but a lot easier to swallow than its previous price point.

What that gets you is an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 multitouch display, an Intel Atom N270 processor, Intel GMA950 graphics, a 16GB SSD, 2GB of RAM, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LAN, 3 USB ports, a MiniSD card slot, SIM card slot, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a 3-cell battery. In other words, it's a netbook that's been flattened out, though at 10 x 6.6 x .8 inches, we hesitate to overstate its flatness.

If you're dead set on paying a premium, there are several higher priced models, the most expensive of which checks in at $1,399 and includes a 128GB SSD.

Netbook Navigator's Tablet Comparison Chart

Image Credit: Netscape Navigator via liliputing.com

Rumblings at Amazon About Tablet-esque Features for the Kindle

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The initial reaction to the iPad has been mixed. But the mixed reaction hasn't necessarily soothed any nerves among its potential competitors. The fractured response means that they will have to wait a bit longer to take stock of the challenge. From the looks of it, Amazon is not awaiting the public's final word on the iPad to post its reply. After all, the iPad is supposed to be Kindle's sternest test till date.

A few days after Amazon was reported to have acquired touch screen company Touchco, the New York Times has unearthed at least 50 job listings on Amazon’s Lab126 career board that all seem to be pointing towards a Kindle equipped with a color screen, multitouch and Wi-Fi. The “Hardware Display Manager,” according to one of the job postings, must have "significant exposure to high volume manufacturing environments; you will know the LCD business and key players in the market."