The HAL uses Android 1.6 as its OS and has WiFi b/g, Ethernet and optional 3G through a USB dongle. It also supports ePub, TXT and HTML eBooks, AVI video, MP3 audio and JPG images as well as Word, Excel and Powerpoint files.
Features:
- CPU: 600MHz VIA ARM with Freescale MX Integration
- 7″ TFT LCD touch screen with resolution: 800*480
- Supports MP3/Audio,AVI, Motion JPEG/Video, Word docs, Excel, Powerpoint, Youtube, games, and several eBook formats; ePub, text, and html
- RAM: 128MB DDR2
- 2GB NAND FLASH, Supports to 32GB Flash or 250GB USB
- Ethernet 10/100M, WIFI:802.11B/G, 3G USB optional
- Ports: SD card (support up to 32G HCSD), USB x 2, Stereo Audio out, Microphone in
Apple’s iPad costs between $500 to $830 and has not yet shipped. You can get 3G for $29.99/month with no contract. It lacks USB, SD Card, camera, Flash support or free navigation apps.
Android tablets may offer more hardware features at less cost:
- Archos 5 Internet Table. Features a 4.8 inch, 800 x 480 pixel resistive touchscreen display, 32GB of storage, an 800MHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, 256MB of RAM, 802/11b/g/n WiFi, a USB port, and runs Android 1.6 plus some custom Archos software. Amazon has them now for under $300.
- Dell’s Mini 5; Dell says there will be “a family of tablets” which will “scale up to a variety of sizes.” Android will be in all of them. Dell will bundle “inexpensive data plans” with the new devices and is apparently working with AT&T on the Mini 5. No release date, though.
- Viewsonic VTablet 101. This Android-powered and keyboard-free device features a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor and NVIDIA Tegra graphics powering an 8.9-inch, 1024 x 800 touchscreen display. There’s 4GB of storage, WiFi, and Bluetooth, and once Google and Adobe bring Flash support to the Android operating system, it should be able to play HD Flash video from the web as well. Under $500. No ship date, though.
- JooJoo’s $500 12 inch capacitive touch screen tablet has been delayed until March 25.
Gartner expects Android to grab the No. 2 spot by 2012, with sales of 525 million smartphones. They expect Symbian to be number one, with 196.5 million sold, 37.4% share; Android number two, with 94.5 million sold, 18% share; BlackBerry 3rd, 73 million sold, 13.9%; iPhone 4th, 71.5 million sold; 13.6% share; Windows Mobile 5th, 47.7 million sold, 9% share; and Maemo 6th, 23.5 million sold, 4.5% share. Others include Linux (generally), 11 million, 2.1% share; and WebOS (from Palm) 7.6 million sold, 1.4% share.
A $500 tablet is a niche. Mass-market advertising (and publishers) will require cheap color devices. To sell 100 million devices, prices must drop. Give me $199.
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