Freescale Unveils Design For $199 Tablet

theodp writes "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. For under $200, Freescale envisions an instant-on device with persistent connectivity and all-day battery life with the following additional features: 7" (1024 x 600) touch screen, Freescale i.MX515 processor (based on ARM Cortex-A8 core), 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, 3G modem (optional), 512 MB DDR2 memory, 4GB to 64GB internal storage, removable micro SD, 3 Mpixel camera (video up to VGA 30fps), 3-axis accelerometer, ambient light sensor, Adobe Flash support, Android or Linux OS."

Comments

"Envisions"

[jonnythan]

I envision all of that, too. But I think I'm about as close to releasing that product as Freescale is.

But my vision also includes tomato bacon pizza, so maybe my local pizzeria is actually the closest.

Always Innovating Touchbook

[compass46]

I remember reading about this about a year ago. Does anyone actually have one? Similar idea with a bigger screen but a little more expensive.

http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/touchbook/

Re:Always Innovating Touchbook

[compass46]

Sweet, I've been mostly looking for a glorified PDF reader and toy to hack around with. The Touchbook looks pretty versatile as something to hack around with.

Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type

[maxume]

So hows that job going?

You know, the one where you are the perfect proxy for the entire consumer market.

Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type

[ArcherB]

How do you do data entry, even touch screen, if you need both hands to hold it? If I want to put a computer on my lap, I'll buy a laptop. If I want a PDA, I'll use a PDA. A 2-handed PDA sucks.

You've never written on a clipboard? You hold it with one hand and write with the other.

Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type

[Monkeedude1212]

They have a dockable Keyboard to turn it into a netbook, practically.

As for touch screen, all you need is a spot to mount it on your dashboard to use it like a GPS.

It's not the worlds most amazing product, especially since its a mere $200, but the applications are there, you just aren't looking hard enough.

What about the A9?

[roe-roe]

I have been waiting, as patiently as I can, for ARM based netbooks with the A9 chip. The ARM integrators have a window of opportunity to effect the netbook/smartbook market significantly. The current Intel Atom offerings are, IMHO, not very good. The licenced Cortex-A9 chip can compete with the Atom processor on a purely performance basis, and blow the pants off of the atom processor on a performance/power ratio. By delaying, Intel is slowly closing the power and performance gaps with new generation Atom processors. Once Intel gets close enough, the ability for ARM based machines to impact the market will be gone.

I fully understand that it takes time to bring the A9 to market, and a chip that can't run windows (I'm not including WinCE) has little appeal in the broader market. On the other hand, if integrators are going to put time and money behind new ARM products why use the A8? I long for when I can get my 2ghz dual-core ARM netbook with a 10" screen and all the connectivity I can think of.

Wow

[ShooterNeo]

The 'netbooks' are shrinking on the low end to compete with smartphones and growing on the high end to compete with laptops. This is real competition at work : there's going to be a computing device ranging from pocket sized all the way up to a desktop with 30" screens.

The interesting bit is that all of these computing devices tend to be all-in one type machines that can take pictures and video, make calls, browse the web, play music, play games, GPS navigate, etc. More specialized devices that only play music (ipod) or GPS navigate (tom tom) or display email (blackberry) or let you write down notes (newton) or take pictures (compact digital camera) are rapidly becoming obsolete.

Every one of these devices, from the smart phone up to the monster desktop, is able to do it all.

On the bad side, the cell phone companies have a stranglehold on the wireless data these devices all need to function. Not only is there clear collusion and oligopoly pricing, but the companies tend to price things based upon arbitrary metrics rather than actual cost. If there was actual free market competition in the wireless industry, text messages would be almost free and downloading video data would cost a fortune. Yet you can get an unlimited data plan for $40-$70 while texting costs at least $20 for unlimited.

Re:Wow

[vlm]

Every one of these devices, from the smart phone up to the monster desktop, is able to do it all....

... very poorly. In fact, just barely well enough to not get class action lawsuits, usually, which is not exactly glowing praise.

Possibly the lowest res worst quality digital cameras ever made on cellphones, complete with greasy lenses dusty sensors and dim slow sensitivity. Viewing the web thru a screen the size of a postage stamp, even webtv was better. Non-apple music player user interfaces that make you wish for the good old days of the 1997 Diamond Rio, but thankfully the phone battery will die in an hour or two so you won't have to suffer long. GPS navigators that work great on any trip shorter than two hours (after which the device overheats and/or the battery dies). Games released for phones in 2009 that would make a Vic-20 user cringe at the poor graphics. Email reader with all the features of "elm" from 1991, albeit with a nice slow GUI.

Or you can get something like an iphone, which does most of that, sort of well, but costs about $3000 over about two years, some upfront, plus hefty monthly fees, soon bandwidth charges will make that even higher if you make the mistake of actually using it.

If over a hundred bucks a month won't do it, I guess a perfect machine would cost at least two or three hundred a month. I can get a nice car for that.

Re:Wow

[Eil]

More specialized devices that only play music (ipod) or GPS navigate (tom tom) or display email (blackberry) or let you write down notes (newton) or take pictures (compact digital camera) are rapidly becoming obsolete.

As they well should. All of the devices you mention are basically the same (architecture-wise) as general-purpose computers, just smaller.

I just bought myself an iPod Touch for christmas (my first Apple purchase) and have experienced equal parts of both fascination and frustration while using the device. The fact that they've managed to give such a small device a very capable web browser is nothing short of amazing, nevermind the zillion other cool things the device does.

It's a shame, however, that Apple has such a strong hold on what I'm able to do with the device after I've bought it. It's ludicrous that there's no access to the filesystem and absolutely no way to put data of any kind on the device without the approval of iTunes. I'd love to develop for it, but I'm not slapping down $99 plus whatever the lowest-end Mac costs just to tinker around. The most worrisome thing, however, is that Apple appears to be more anti-open-source than Microsoft at the same time that they directly benefit from a large number of open source frameworks and libraries in virtually all of their software.

I know, I can always jailbreak the iPod and get most of the functionality I'm asking for (and I probably will eventually), but it would be nice for a change if a company could engineer a device without going through so much trouble to lock it down to one or two functions. And/or perceived their more technical customers to be assets rather than enemies.

Two points

[Locke2005]

1) Reference design != product
2) Cost of $199 is based on Freescale's projected cost of components, meaning actual cost to consumers would be higher (probably closer to the rumored $300 iSlate price)
However, if you add a tie-in to a decent eBook/mp3/video vendor, this device could have a decent niche market. In fact, it could adopt the cellphone business model and be given away for "free" with a commitment to a monthly subscription fee. Would you pay $20/month for two years for this if it included content?

Velcro

[JoshDD]

Put velcro straps on it strap it to your left forearm and type with your right hand. And it would even give big dumb jock yet another excuse to beat up nerds.

Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type

[mmell]

So lemme get this straight - you've never used, say, a clipboard, right? Or are you generally just not a fan of the tablet PC form-factor? Incidentally, tablet PC's aren't generally a first choice for data-entry tasks - typing on an on-screen keyboard is generally a painful exercise at best and considerably slower than typing on a decent keyboard in any event. Tablets are designed as a highly portable data presentation device - using handwriting recognition software, they make a decent data capture device (e.g., handwritten notes) - but for data entry, get yourself a clerk and a desktop PC with a good keyboard. The right tool for the right job.

This thing looks exactly like what I've been looking for, except for the "auto-on" bit (which I take to mean OS in firmware). If there's a mechanism for me to flash my own OS, I'm a happy man (see: SheevaPlug). If it's in EEPROM, fine. If OTOH it's in ROM, well - I don't care if they DO let me add software to a local hard drive, I'll wait for the next guy's offering. The hardware is a really good match to what I want, and I'll handle my own software.

Re:Just a little Nit

[Low Ranked Craig]

Isn't Android just a mobile distribution of Linux?

No.

What is Android?
Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications. The Android SDK provides the tools and APIs necessary to begin developing applications on the Android platform using the Java programming language.

http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html

Re:Just a little Nit

[maxume]

It is based on a mobile distribution of linux, but it is also a java like language and a set of APIs.

It is probably better to say that it is implemented on top of a linux kernel.

Re:That kills the google welfarebook

[Jenming]

Google's netbook is not going to require applications to be approved or signed by Google. The apps just need to run through your browser and come in from a remote server. This hardly the same thing. Furthermore its open source and if you really want to run local software you can make that happen.

Fuck Tablets

[sexconker]

OMG GOOGLE TABLET OMG APPLE TABLET OMG THE OLPC OF TABLETS.
Shut the fuck up. If your company missed the "netbook" boat, then too bad. If you're not Amazon, you didn't make the Kindle - too bad.

This industry has gone from innovation to theft to bandwagon jumping to bandwagon hyping to hyping of planned bandwagon hyping.

History has proven time and time again that the market for tablets is very small. I don't give a shit how much hot air you blow into the media's ass, you're not going to make a bigger market for tablets because people don't like tablets.

As for this proposed tablet? It's sheer feature / price point marketing. The PHBs called a meeting with marketing and wrote some features on the board, then they came up with a price. And they're only doing it because of the incessant, unfounded rumors that tablets are going to be the next big market.

Re:Fuck Tablets

[gmuslera]

Remember where mp3 players were geek-only gadgets? or touchscreens or cheap/small notebooks something without future?

Technology advances, and people preference does too. Maybe 5 years ago tablets had no big appeal, culture wasnt built on consumers, then most smartphones started to have a touchscreen, but maybe sometimes you fould feel that the screen is too small and you are start to build a potential market. Foldable keyboards or twistable screens to turn tablets back and forth to something more like notebooks/desktops could help a bit in that area too.

Sometimes this kind of things ends being just fads, but if that is the case with tablets, probably won't be evident this year.

"Smartphone", "netbook", "ebook", "smartbook"...

[John Hasler]

Can the "phonebook" be far behind?

Re:Some Questions

[asdf7890]

1024 by 600? Why not 1024 by 768?

Form factor? Looking at the pictures on the page linked to increasing the screen depth would mean widening the unit (unless you mean you want a higher res but with oblong pixels). Also widescreen format displays are probably cheaper on account of being mass produced for the current netbook market.

can i install unbuntu/kubuntu on it?

The summary does say "Android or Linux" so almost certainly yes, hardware support permitting.

Re:Some Questions

[Lisandro]

1024x600 is the standard "widescreen" resolution for 10" netbook displays.

Re:That kills the google welfarebook

[tepples]

[Chrome OS] apps just need to run through your browser and come in from a remote server.

Chrome OS will also support installing JavaScript apps to local storage through HTML 5's offline features. But does it run WebGL? And does it allow changing playback rate and volume of audio?

Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type

[sexconker]

$200 for the unit with the least amount of storage.
$45 for the keyboard dock.
$35 for their keyboard (the only one that will fit)
$15 for a pack of 3 styluses (doesn't come with one because it's "designed for finger use" even though finger use is shit on it and nastifies the screen).
$35 for the carrying bag which doesn't hold the keyboard dock or keyboard.
$30 for a little travel mouse

Re:Some Questions

[StreetStealth]

1024 by 600? Why not 1024 by 768?

WSVGA. The width of XGA (minimum native for most web sites) in a smaller package.

Re:That kills the google welfarebook

[FlyingBishop]

There's a good chance it will run full-fledged Java apps running on the Dalvik virtual machines. There's no reason to worry about its flexibility before you can even buy a machine that runs it.

This has been done before!

[kurt555gs]

If only the Freescale device had 2 knobs.

http://www.etch-a-sketch.com/

Cheers

Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type

[h4rm0ny]

Uh, it's not made by Apple, you know.

Re:Just a little Nit

[ArhcAngel]

So...it isn't a distribution of Linux like "Cloud Computing" isn't a fancy term for client/server or thin client computing...Gotcha!

Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type

[aztracker1]

That's why he said $35 for the keyboard instead of $99

Re:Too big for 1 hand, so how do you type

[SargentDU]

But if you can replace the battery ... it also proves that it is not from Apple! :)

At least provide a socket for more RAM!

[billstewart]

It was about a decade ago that I upgraded one of my lab machines to 640MB, because that "ought to be enough for anybody."

But these days it's way way way too small, mostly for browsers and caching. Lenovo's already lost one sale from me by selling a cute little Atom-based slab machine for $199 which only had 512MB in it (or maybe it was 1GB) because the packaging didn't say anything about whether it could be upgraded or not. Yes, I know they need to have a low-config price to get some people to buy it, but it costs less than $50 for 2GB of notebook RAM and even less for desktop RAM, and there's no excuse for making a machine that can't be upgraded.