CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Freescale Semiconductor has designs on new "smartbook" tablet computers and to prove it it's rolling out a second-generation reference design at the Consumer Electronics Show.

To say that tablet concepts are all the rage right now is, of course, an understatement. With a media frenzy over a reportedly imminent Apple tablet, companies like Freescale, which will supply the silicon guts of these newfangled computers, are eager to show concepts that they are peddling to device makers.

Freescale is pushing designs "with prices less than $200"--according to a statement--that integrate its version of the power-efficient ARM processor: the i.MX515 chip based on ARM Cortex-A8 technology.

Here's how Freescale describes the design: it will "provide instant-on functionality, persistent connectivity and all-day battery life." The tablet that the chipmaker will show at CES will run both the Android and Linux operating systems.

An overview of the Freescale reference design:

• Display: 7-inch (1024 x 600) touch screen
• Processor: Freescale i.MX515 processor based on ARM Cortex-A8 core
• Connectivity: 3G modem (option) 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS
• Memory: 512 MB DDR2
• Storage: from 4GB to 64GB internal storage; removable micro SD
• Camera: 3 Mpixel (video recording up to VGA 30fps)
• Sensors: 3-axis accelerometer and an ambient light sensor
• Adobe Flash Player support
• Operating system: Android or Linux
• Price: under $200

Partners include Inventec Appliance for design and manufacturing services and Thundersoft for software integration customization and optimization.

The erstwhile chip manufacturing arm of Motorola (spun off in 2004) calls its technology platform Smart Application Blueprint for Rapid Engineering or SABRE. "The SABRE tablet platform for smartbooks incorporates feedback from a recently completed end-user research study conducted in conjunction with Savannah College of Art and Design's prestigious Industrial Design program," the company said.

And availability? The smartbook reference design is expected to be available for evaluation beginning in February, according to the company.

Source: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

What does that mean?

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Even though I wish them luck with a finished product, they almost always start out at $199 (Crunchpad, OLPC) and end up way north of that in price.

Glad to see tablets get their due; just wished at least one of them ran Maemo 5... and was built by Nokia... and didn't have cellphone radios in it... and didn't cost as much as the N900.

Guess I want too much... oh well.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

... and had a 4"- 4.5" screen in the smallest possible form factor so it was still pocketable ....

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Being a reference platform enabling fast physical reimplementation by OEMs (of any tier) we might see several variations on this theme.

We could dig up the naively optimistic humongous thread detailing tablet users' hopes and wishes for the N8x successor's up-to-date hardware... Given that some tablets using modern hardware are likely to start hitting the streets this spring, maybe something hits the sweet spots.

I do like choice.

GK: I'm in the same pocketable camp, although a compact and bezel-less 7-incher with the greater 1024x600 resolution may also be worth consideration. 4"- 5" format is still a great compromise for both viewing 800x480 content and thumb-keyboarding.

Krisse: I doubt it means either Nokia or Nokia's Maemo so these are unlikely to be of much interest to you. Moblin is a remote possibility although they're Intel's baby, so I suspect it'll simply mean yet more Android-based devices and maybe some based on the Debian/Ubuntu netbook/tablet efforts. Both of them have significant developer backing and already wide (albeit different) selection of apps.

Hobbyist Mer ports may also happen, but with its hip-ties to Nokia's partially closed and corporate needs-driven Maemo I'm not sure if any 3rd party would seriously consider preloading and supporting it.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Liliputing has another one of various takes on Freescale's tablet reference platform with more than enough chunky base-keyboardness.

Meanwhile Engadget covers HTC 'touch tablets' for Android and Chrome OS?

Summary: ... not content with giving us the roomy 4.3-inch HD2 (warning: MS-Wince), HTC is now said to be actively testing out fully fledged tablet devices... to be driven by Google's Android and minimalist Chrome OS... word is that Qualcomm and Adobe are engaged... strictly uncorroborated, one-source rumormongering.

I suppose the smaller the package, the harder it is to keep the 3G/cellular radio truly modular rather than integrated.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

enlarge it to a 10" display, maybe with 1280x800 resolution,
expand the memory options to 1GB or 2GB RAM
put a DVI-I or DisplayPort port on it

and I'd be interested.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

They have an un-named "conventional" Linux dist (not sure if it's homespun, or one of the standards (Ubuntu, Xandros, Linpus, etc.)) ... or you can have Android.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Wish they'd give some indication of the size range for these tablets.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

A waste of money

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Indeed. It seems incredible that at this point Nokia is pulling back to smaller devices when everyone else are doing the opposite. Here's still hoping we'll get the pocketable Nokia tablet in near future. I really want to get a worthy successor for my N800 :)

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

In the photos the OS looks kinda like Moblin. Maybe they mean "Android or Moblin". It doesn't matter, the OEM will define the OS, not freescale. And even more importantly "reference" design is much like "concept car", you can't buy one.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Basically, Nokia was well ahead of the curve with the 770. They basically made the first MID, before anyone knew what a MID was. The N800 and N810 moved that concept forward, and then, right when the rest of the market was catching up, putting a label on the general concept, and starting to release devices ... Nokia abandoned that market.

What I wish Nokia would do is: get back ahead of the curve, instead of being behind it. IMO, they basically missed the netbook curve, coming out with too-generic too-late. They need to get back to doing it first, and doing it better.

I know some would like to see new 4"-5" tablets ... but I'm not really convinced that there's an important market there. a 4" tablet phone, sure. A 4" connected tablet? could be (esp. with Skype, Google Voice, and generic SIP capabilities). A 4" non-connected tablet (like the N8x0)? no.

Where I think Nokia can, and should, be is that the mid-range tablet is still young enough that they could do something amazing. Maemo on a 9" or 10" tablet would be outstanding, if done correctly. But, the window for "doing it [nearly] first, and doing it better" is basically "within the next few months". After that, they'll be just another "johnny come lately" to the crowd. And, unlike the 770 and N800, if they wait too long, they might not beat Apple to the table.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

The reason might be that they're planning on bringing a whole range of devices with Harmattan. If that were the case, they would have to also test the phone aspects of Maemo to get it right, so it would explain the smaller size of N900. With Harmattan they should have all the experience and pieces together to make great devices for both phone and tablet use. It could be that the current tablet hype just caught them off guard. I'm hoping there's some rational plan behind all this rather than just a screw-up :rolleyes:

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

How on earth could you miss all the connectivity features in the N8x0-series!? :eek:

I've certainly used those voice features often, either via WIFI or tethered via my mid-range Nokia's GPRS/EDGE connection (chose not to use 3G due pricing and coverage), sometimes in very remote foreign places.

I've occasionally promoted the continued development of a "cellphone companion device" i.e simply a hardware update and refresh of the N8x0 models which, with faster hardware and evolved software, would be even more ideal companions to the existing mobile users, but the main reason why Nokia has abandoned the non-phone tablets may well be political.

The single top-end N900 model with its still somewhat immature cellular telephony features doesn't pose significant threat to the hordes of Symbian developers who are being pushed and pulled towards Nokia's emerging QT-based Symbian environment.

The currently most powerful (by far) Symbian lobby within Nokia may imagine the higher-end features of an affordable Maemo-based "companion device" as a threat both to their own higher-end Symbian models' margins and to all those Symbian developers who can't deploy their QT-wares on Maemo until 2012 at earliest.

So instead of cannibalizing some stagnant Symbian market share in favour of developer and userbase momentum for Maemo, Nokia is conceding ground on both accounts to other Linux-based mid- and upper-range newcomers, including Android.

Sure, this is just a theory and not an all-encompassing or omniscient one at that, but the upcoming Cortex-8 tablets (affordable, despite not having Nokia's economies-of-scale?) seem all destined to run something else than Maemo.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

I didn't miss them at all. I just don't consider that to be a "connected device". A "connected device", clearly (in the way I was using it) is one that has it's own mobile radio, and not just wifi + bluetooth + USB.

The N810WiMAX was a connected device. The N810 was not.

As did I.

That's no longer being ahead of the curve. That's fairly well behind the curve. Everyone (Apple, Archos, Cowon, Viliv, blah blah blah) has one. Some have better connectivity choices than the others (ex: the iPod Touch only works with wifi tethering), but the basic "doesn't have a mobile radio" aspect is still the same.

I'm not sure how ANY of that is relevant to what I said.

Where are the emerging markets right now?

4"-5" devices that don't at least have the option of a 3G radio ... is not one of them. That market hasn't been "emerging" for over a year. Right now, it's both saturated, and has a couple of big players. Nokia had a chance at controlling that market, by being the first one there ... but they pissed it away. Trying to re-introduce themselves to that market, and take it back over ... probably a wasted effort. It's sad, and it might be nice (as you say) to maintain some presence there ... but it's not worth a HUGE effort. And it's certainly not going to be as big a revenue source as if they had kept their early dominance.

6"-11" tablets that have e-reader capabilities, tie ins with media sources for that e-reader content, and flexible software capabilities ... that's the emerging market. They wouldn't be first, nor the first to make a big splash, but if they had been on the ball, they could have been the first to make a machine that was both a quite useful and handy e-reader AND a general purpose mobile computer. Think about the B&N Nook, only instead of it being 2 small single-purpose screens running Android, think of it as a single PixelQi screen based Maemo tablet (with, or without, the WWAN module for data). That's where Nokia should have been 3 months ago (announcing and in development with PixelQi and B&N; obviously they couldn't have shipped it until a month or so ago). And they've only got a few more months (at best) to get there.

After that, what's the next emerging market? It still wont be '4"-5" tablets that only have wifi and bluetooth' ... that ship sailed. But whatever it is, Nokia better figure it out.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Eh? You stated your belief that there isn't demand for an updated 4"-5" easily tetherable and media-savvy internet tablet unless it has an integrated 3G radio.

I pointed to another thread where the Apple iPod (no 3G) is shown to be in fact quite popular indeed and where I explain how Nokia's non-cellular (but still better connected) internet tablets would be useful for both customers and the Maemo platform as an alternative to the pricier top-end (N900) Maemo phone class.

Then, rather than simply taking your "lack of demand" argument as gospel, I speculated why Nokia has chosen not to bring the modernized "companion tablet" to market at all. (Symbian politics)

Can you see ANY of the relevance now?

I do apologize if the conclusion wasn't what you expected, but this debate does also involve 3rd party "competitors" who are working on bringing modern tablet hardware and software to market, with "3G optional", but unfortunately Maemo doesn't feature in that equation any longer.

Btw. it isn't always about being the first to jump into emerging markets but also identifying user cases and both catering to and sticking by them. A little marketing also helps sometimes.

Nokia (and Maemo) owned the internet tablet market (as opposed to Apple's closed garden) - even without doing any of the above (apart from pioneering...) - until 2008 when they chose to euthanize the whole skunkworks "companion device" category instead of bringing it to date.

And good luck hunting for the elusive next "emerging market" wave with Nokia. These days they tend to ride the early wave before jumping off instead of sticking around to see where they might ride or steer towards.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Modular. THANK YOU

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

I think you misunderstood what I was saying.

I'm not saying that there's no demand for any such devices. I'm saying that there isn't enough demand/room for "yet another such device". Nokia left that market about 2 years ago, and trying to get back into it would be pointless. They don't offer anything (except to former N8x0 users) that would attract market share with such a device.

Between Archos and Apple, and a few others (including Linux based devices), I don't see there being much hope for Nokia to break in, offer value, and therefore win market share. If they had stayed in from the start, and played that market like they wanted to win it, sure. But they didn't. They pissed it away. And the gap that they left has been filled.

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

Yup. I agree with johnkzin though (sadly).

Re: CNET: The $199 tablet according to Freescale
 

I'll be keeping a eye out interested if it's not andriod