VIA prepping sub-$200 Android tablets for 2010
May 25, 2010 at 5:40 pm
No one wants to be left off the tablet merry-ground and today’s company to join the action is VIA, who says that its chip will power a number of Android tablets before the year is over. More specifically, VIA Executive, Richard Brown, said that around five different Android-based tablets priced between $100 and $150 will arrive in the US during the second half of 2010.
He goes on to say that Apple has “legitimated” the tablet market with the iPad. He is not alone in these thoughts, researcher IDC says that the global tablet shipments will increase sixfold by 2014 from 7.6 million to 46 million. Lofty projections indeed. Let’s just see if this doesn’t become another fad.
May 25th, 2010 9:46 PM
Sorry to sound harsh but why is this website making articles on tablets? Its netbookchoice.com, not tabletchoice.com. We come here to read up news about netbooks.
May 26th, 2010 7:08 AM
This price point betwen $100-150 is ideal for tablets. The tablet device has been hyped by Apple by their own marketing gimmickry and gullible ones flock to buy it for a price that is +US$300-400 more than what it, quite frankly, actually deserves. If Apple makes cotton pillow cover cases (made from China ofcourse) there’ll be a million buyers to purchase it at five hundred dollars.
@Jack: Form factors and screen sizes are blurring the device differentiation. If you see, netbook is now a word that wants to include any device that isn’t in following two categories: A MID phone (less than or till 5″ screen otherwise Dell Streak would have figured) or a notebook (beyond 12.1″ screen size). I stand by 10.1″ as netbook so anything less than this doesn’t fly for the form factor and anything more is essentially an ultra-portable. But for the sake of easing nomenclature, let all ’em be “netbooks” 🙂
May 26th, 2010 8:36 AM
@Jack – It’s a fair question and one we’ve been debating internally here at NbC.
We have been covering tablets on a number of grounds, this includes the fact that screen size, cost and hardware are not entirely different to that of a typical netbook. Yes, of course they are fundamentally different devices but we feel there are enough similarities for our readership to be interested in both types of devices.
You also need to consider that we cover a number of convertible netbooks/tablets and that touchscreens in netbooks (even without the convertible form-factor) are likely to become more prevalent as time goes on.
Tablets are not a new phenomena but one that is likely to have more traction this time around. It also seems that people who may have been in the market for a netbook, may now be considering a tablet instead. Couple this with Nvidia’s CEO saying how he believes that netbooks and tablets will merge into “leisure computing” and I think it’s entirely reasonable to provide coverage here.
May 26th, 2010 5:57 PM
What good is an ipad compared to a netbook though? There are countless reasons that tablets are inferior to netbooks. I think the only people who are reconsidering on getting a tablet rather than a netbook are mainly those who fall for the hype.
May 26th, 2010 6:24 PM
Ipad:
No flash
No cd/dvd drive
No USBs
Small Hard drive with no expandable storage
Slow processor
Not much Ram
No 3rd party apps, music ect, 100% rely on apple for everything
Can’t set it down when you want to watch a move, you have to hold it
Expensive
You have to pay extra for wifi version
Doesn’t have a camera (Iphone and Ipod both do)
Have to buy expensive att data plan for wireless internet
Can’t upgrade hardware later, just have to dish out the money for the new one
Can’t play PC games