Posted: January 3rd, 2012 | Author: admin | Filed under: Gadgets | Tags: Aakash, India’s, LowCost, million, preorders, Tablet | No Comments »
Update: Datawind confirms that the “pre-orders” are no-money-down reservations, not paid-in-full pre-orders. So it’s more like people waiting in line than real orders. The Aakash is sold out but more will be manufactured, and the reservations are in part for the Ubislate. Regardless, demand seems to be high for the low-cost device and its slightly-higher-cost successor, more than enough to justify the increase in capacity.
The low-cost Indian tablet known as the Aakash, which we have followed in its career over the last year, is finally shipping. In late December they opened up orders for the first batch of 30,000 units, and brought so much traffic to their retail site that an Indian cyber regulation agency called to inform them they were possibly under attack. And in the last two weeks, they’ve racked up over 1.4 million pre-orders — iPad-scale numbers.
It’s being sold for Rs2500, which translates to just under $50. The government then subsidizes sales to students, bringing the cost down to $35. But while the government originally suggested a million devices would be on the ground before the end of 2011, the Indian manufacturer won’t be pushing out devices at a decent rate until this coming April, and at that point the Aakash may find itself an orphan device.
Despite the original bluster from the Indian government, which fanned the flames of sensationalism with increasingly absurd price estimates (at one point they were talking about a $10 device), the device has passed trials that have killed many a device, and is in fact finalized, in manufacture, and shipping. But India does not have enough manufacturing capacity to supply the hundreds of thousands of orders that are rolling in. New factories being built by Datawind in Cochin, Noida, and Hyderabad will solve that problem, but in the meantime the Aakash is under attack from other directions.
Datawind, which manufactures the device, has begun to push an alternative to the Aakash: a slightly more expensive device with better specs called the UbiSlate 7+. At Rs2999, it offers a much better processor (700MHz Arm Cortex A8 vs the Aakash’s 366Mhz Arm11), a bigger battery, a newer version of Android, and mobile data (on GPRS). It’s not unthinkable that this device might be embraced by the many institutions that have been waiting patiently for the promised flood of cheap, standardized tablets.
The delays on the government’s part may end up making the Aakash an obsolete device that isn’t even much cheaper than the competition. And Problems with the hardware and software, while haven’t stopped the device from pulling in tons of pre-orders, suggest that even after all this time it is still being rushed to market. The tech market is merciless, and even the pro-Aakash contingent may find itself rooting for something more practical after a few months.
India’a Aakash experiment has been a long and strange one, and may yet prove to be a success or failure. Either result would be limited, however: a success would be minor as they must still struggle to justify and produce the device in the face of increasing competition, and failure would mean mainly that they would have to scrap the current model and try again fresh for a 2012 launch.
And either result is respectable, because the entire idea is respectable, and the rocky road upon which it has traveled was more or less expected. It’s the entrepreneurial spirit moving within the government, and has its roots in a desire to better their population’s lot and to try something new. And at any rate what’s more interesting than the device itself is the continuing investment in an infrastructure in which a national tablet is developed, manufactured, and nurtured.
TechCrunch has many readers in India, and their comments on the topic (being closer to the matter) will be appreciated.
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Posted: November 20th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Gadgets | Tags: drop, fire, Kindle, Nook, Tablet, test | No Comments »
I hate these kind of videos. There’s enough waste in electronics that we don’t need to destroy stuff that is in already perfect condition (hence our refusal to post those ridiculous Will It Blend videos). However, this is for science!
A seemingly new site, Gizmoslip did a Mythbusters on the Nook Tablet and theKindle Fire. The winner, as you’ll find out, was the Nook Tablet. The Fire’s screen shattered fairly effusively while the Nook took some long cracks in the corner.
Does this prove anything? Probably not, but clearly the Nook’s fairly clunky-looking plastic edging was good for something.
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Posted: September 3rd, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Gadgets | Tags: 7″, Amazon, Genius, Launching, Mockup, only, Plus, Tablet | No Comments »
The Amazon Kindle tablet is real. Very much real. As in, MG has held it in his very own hands. I threw together the mockup above based on what he shared with me.
As MG explained, we now know that the Kindle tablet won’t initially ship in both 7-inch and 10-inch variants, contrary to previous rumors. After a change in plans earlier this summer, Amazon only intends to launch with a 7-inch model.
That decision might just be the best one that Amazon could have possibly made — and it ought to have Samsung and all of the other Android tablet manufacturers shaking in their boots.
Before we dive in, we need to establish some numbers. So far this year, the iPad has maintained roughly 70-80% of the tablet marketshare. While certain Android tablets are undoubtedly more popular than others, that only leaves 20-30% of the market for all of the Android tablet manufacturers to split. While Apple sits with the biggest piece of the pie all to themselves, the Android tablet manufacturers are battling for left overs. Even if the entire Android tablet marketshare belonged to one tablet (which, again, it definitely does not), said tablet still wouldn’t have sold even half as well as the iPad.
From this, we’ve learned at least one thing: competing with the iPad by trying to be the iPad.. doesn’t really work.
Over the past few months, I’ve noticed something strange. Among my geekier circles, I’m always hearing the same question: iPad, or Xoom/Galaxy Tab/Android-tablet-name-here? Among less tech-minded folks (you know, like the majority of the population) though, the question seems to shift: iPad, or Kindle?
Now, it’s not that the less tech-savvy people wouldn’t like an Android tablet… they just don’t really seem to know they exist. There are just too many strikingly similar tablets, all battling for that one smaller sliver of the pie.
To go all anecdotal again here for a second: just this past Monday — as I do every Monday — I was playing trivia at a pub in the Bay Area. Trivia Night at this pub is something of a huge deal, with around 25 teams (4-6 people each) playing each week. Mid-way through the second round, the trivia master asked: “Two pointer here, folks: What is the name of Motorola’s tablet device? What is the name of Dell’s tablet?”
Three teams could name Dell’s tablet. Six teams got Motorola’s. Out of 25 teams, each made up of a handful of drinking-age adults, less than a third could conjure up the name of one of the biggest Android tablets around. Though we’ll gladly babble on it for days on end, the tablet market is still something of a niche — and in a niche market, recognition is everything. The iPad is the iPad. Everything else is.. well, everything else. If they were to launch with a 10″ tablet, Amazon would be throwing themselves in with everything else.
But they’re not. Rather than taking on Apple on their own court, they’re moving to keep a lock on a game they’re already kicking butt at (the e-reader market), while upping the odds that anyone weighing “iPad or Kindle?” will be swayed in their favor. By launching with a 7″ tablet (and only a 7″ tablet), Amazon is making it clear: they don’t want the Kindle tablet to be the iPad. They want it to be everything the iPad is not.
They want it to be small, and comfortable to read in bed. This is a Kindle, after all. For many folks who just want something to read in bed or throw into their bag to read on the train, the iPad’s nearly 10-inch display can feel a bit gigantic.
They want it to be cheap. Smaller displays are cheaper right up front, require less plastic for the body, and can get by with a lesser battery and a smaller backlight. More than a year after launch, the cheapest iPad you can buy new will set you back $499. According to the same source whose Kindle tablet we used, Amazon currently has it priced at half that: just $250. Even launching a 10-incher alongside would increase R&D costs, as well as lead consumers to believe that the 10″ model is the flagship (thereby throwing it up directly against the iPad and everything else.)
Meanwhile, they’re moving away from the direction that most other Android tablets have taken. This isn’t a be-all, do-all machine — it’s a new and improved Kindle, just as the name will imply. They’re aiming for simplicity, distilling the homescreen down to a Cover Flow-esque arrangement, making the entire experience all about your books, movies, and other media. And if you happen to want it to do other stuff? Sure, it can do that — they even have their very own App Store! But this isn’t an Android tablet. It’s a Kindle, and it just happens to run Android.
As for Samsung, LG, Motorola, and all the other tablet makers out there: unless they’re happy with whatever sliver of the minority chunk they’ve nabbed so far, they better take this as a shot right across the bow. For Android tablet manufacturers, the next big step will be figuring out how to ensure that the general consumer has any idea that their tablet exists — and here comes Amazon, swooping in with their cheap, small tablet and bringing the iconic, incredibly well-established Kindle brand (and their incredibly powerful distribution channel) with them. Genius.
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