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An Affordable $199 Tablet for Everyone -- And It's Not From Apple
- cmars232 17y agoAn interesting up-and-coming alternative to a recently hyped, closed-platform tablet.
- tvon 17y agoIt's a concept car, at this point. I may never arrive, and there is certainly no promise of price point. Don't get me wrong, I hope it does, and I hope it's cheap, but for now it's vapor.
- chaostheory 17y agoThis isn't a real product; it's a reference design. What's unclear is whether 199 is what it will cost manufacturers to make or the price it will be on the street.
- elblanco 17y agoEven if they sell it at 2x that, it'll still be cheaper and potentially more capable than the iPad.
- willwagner 17y agoThe specs: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=RDSMARTBOOK http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?co... Also, an article saying they have it running android, chromium os, and ubuntu: http://www.liliputing.com/2010/01/freescale-tablet-running-chromium-os-video.html http://www.liliputing.com/2010/01/freescale-tablet-running-c...
- vaksel 17y agolet's be honest here, noone would expect something "affordable" from Apple, they are a premium brand. It's like BMW coming out with a ~12,000 car....just won't happen.
- philwelch 17y agoThat's not actually true--when Apple innovates, they come with something at a higher price end, but they aggressively push downwards after that. The original iPod was $400. The closest functional equivalent to the original iPod, from Apple, is now $150 (but it's actually a lot better).
- smallblacksun 17y agoAnd you can get comparable (minus the patented touch wheel thingie) mp3 players for 50 bucks.
- cwilson 17y agoI'm actually quite shocked people are saying the iPad isn't affordable. This is probably the most affordable overly hyped product Apple has ever released. I was expecting $1,000 just like Steve Jobs said and was blown away when it was as low as it was, and even more blown away by the pay as you go unlimited 3G for $30 a month.
- ubernostrum 17y agoThe smaller models in the iPod line -- particularly the Nano and Shuffle -- have always been priced rather nicely, able to take advantage of Apple's brand prestige in the market combined with a price point that makes them affordable gifts around the holidays.
- wvenable 17y agoYeah, Steve Jobs is a genius -- he says it's $1,000 and then you're not shocked that the minimum configuration costs nearly twice as much as a netbook.
- jsz0 17y agoI don't think you can easily compare a $250 netbook to the iPad. Lower quality screen, heavier, thicker, significantly less battery life, no multi-touch, lower build quality, and of course weaker software. They may serve some of the same purposes but I don't think they're directly comparable.
- wan23 17y agoDoes anyone know if there's an easy way to get something like this to play with? It might be fun to start thinking about iPad killers.
- dagw 17y agoSince it's a reference design I'm guessing they're only sold in batches of 10000 or so to companies who want to slap their own brand name on them. Perhaps if you can call them out and sound like you have the money lined up and are really seriously interested in putting in a 50000 unit order, they might send you a few samples for free.
- ghjkmjn 17y agoThe price of the unit is irrelevant. If it has a 3G modem you will need to sing up for $100/month data plan for 3years (much more outside the USA) So you are really buying a $3600 3year old computer
- cubicle67 17y agoSay what? I pay AU$10/100MB (about US$9) for prepaid (no contract) mobile data
- poppysan 17y agoIn the US it is MUCH more expensive my friend.
- dangrossman 17y agoUnlimited 4G internet (small USB dongle for a tablet like this) costs $30/mo for 6 months then $45/mo through CLEAR or Comcast if it's available in your city
- tomjen2 17y agoIs it just me, or does it seem like the size specs are wrong? I would expect something way more flat than 14cm.
- pyre 17y agoI don't understand how a camera above the screen on this thing is even usable. Are you supposed to grab the tablet by its sides and aim it at you photo target? The tablet seems large enough to make such an operation unwieldy. Not to mention the need to somehow press a button to actually snap the shot in addition to using both hands to hold the thing....
- tvon 17y agoPeople have been calling for a front-facing camera on the iPhone, and one was rumored (among other things) to be on the iPad, but I really don't see the point. The only real use seems to be video chat, but who want's to hold the damn thing steady for video chat?
- warfangle 17y agoIf it has decent auto-correction software, small bumps shouldn't futz with the picture. Much. (The main method I could see for this is making the viewable area of video smaller than the sensor; an accelerometer or clever image analysis could determine if the picture is shaking, and autocorrect it)
- tvon 17y agoTrue, but I'm not so much thinking about small bumps as having to hold it relatively still and pointing at your face. With a laptop it's easy, the thing has a large base and even if it's on your physical lap it's not going to move that much, and it's oriented so the camera points at you when at rest. A tablet device on the other hand, well, try it with a small mirror, how long do you want to hold it like that? How jarring would it be to the other end when it shakes (minor steady-cam business aside)? I could be wrong of course, maybe people would get the hang of it quickly, but it seems like one of those potential features that people look at with their rose colored glasses (like full OSX on a tablet, imo), without really thinking about what it would be like in practice.
- jonknee 17y agoVideo chat. Just like the front facing camera on laptops.
- awa 17y agoThe article was published on Jan 4th 2010. According to the article, they were suppose to demo it during the CES which has already come and gone and since I didn't see any headlines regarding the $199 tablet from Freescale, I would assume they have already pushed their release dates to much later (or may have abandoned the plans).