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What Might a $50 Tablet Inspire? (arstechnica.com)
theodp writes: Surprisingly, says Ars Technica's review of Amazon's $50 Fire tablet, it doesn't suck. "There's simply very little reason to spend more when you can get 90 percent of the functionality for a fraction of the price," writes Mark Walton. "The only real niggle right now with the Fire Tablet is the display (and the camera, if you really want to take photos with your tablet). Once budget tabs start coming with 1080p displays as standard, the writing really will be on wall. For now, the Amazon Fire Tablet is the budget tablet to beat." How does cheap technology like this mesh with Bill Gates's dream of putting a computer in every home, and projects like OLPC? Beyond that, any thoughts on what a $50 tablet price point might inspire in education, gaming, and other areas?
It still costs over $50/month for an internet connection in most households, and that's if you're lucky enough to have internet available at your house. People who are unable to purchase a $100-$200 tablet are going to be equally incapable of maintaining a mothly subscription.
Maybe someday we'll see "mobile" OS's that allow for greater disconnection, but the current trend with storage and content tranfer is totally against this customer empowered idea.
A $49.95 tablet.
Tablets are suited for those who consume content, rather than create it.
It won't inspire anything new, just open more windows on what we've got.
So buy one for your wife (who wants another viewscreen in the house) and call the firemen to haul away that crate of books.
Sorry, but 1024x600 is a terrible resolution. The small screen may be acceptable at this price, but the resolution is not. 1GB of RAM and the MTK CPU also make for a painful experience. So it does suck, even now, and certainly even more so next year.
That being said you can get some decent tablets for $100. But somehow everybody is already on the internet, and these cheap tablets have not caused any of the predicted revolutions.
What would we do without visionaries like Bill Gates imagining cheaper computers? Without him, people would have gotten confused and made computers more and more expensive!
And the difference between Kindle and other low cost devices: the Kindle isn't intended to be hackable. In fact, the $50 is really a subsidized price.
Bros, I hear that tablets aren't good for anything but consumption and toys. No matter how cheap the get, no matter how capable they get, they'll never be anything more than toys for consumption, and completely unusable for anything creative, or anything remotely resembling REAL work.
I read that on Slashdot, so I'm pretty sure it's indisputable.
A Tablet is not a computer. It is some kind of restricted interface digital device, made for content consumption and based around pictogram interfaces. Computers, personal computers, were always envisaged as flexible, customisable, programmable general purpose devices, based around computer and natural language inputs. Up to the last few years, most were.
Tablets ape the general purpose functions of PCs by having glut of low quality, shocking single purpose apps, but no way to tie these together. Even the simplest of functionality, saving, copying, pasting, editing, is in most cases absent, locked down, or only partially available on these digital devices. Tablets are not computers in the traditional sense, and are far closer to devices like phones, TVs and video game consoles. Digital, but in general not user programmable.
So it is no surprise to see such a device reach full "functionality" at a $50 price point. That is the true worth of the usage they provide.
What I would like is a device that I could connect to something like an arduino or small cortex board with lots of digital and analog I/O. It needs to run my programs very easily from some simple environment like the arduino or processing IDEs. And if possible I'd like it to just start up or wake-from-sleep into my code without a lot of overhead.
Then I'd have the ultimate interface device. Sure I can attach screens to my Pi or arduino now but with cell phones and now tablets getting ridiculously cheap, having their own WiFi and sound and very high quality multi-touch screens plus batteries it makes no sense to use anything else as the cpu. what's missing is the I/O. The problem is that usually these devices want to load a heavyweight operating environment, run your app only when a user clicks it, and generally phone home to the mothership at amazon.
So if this device is not a loss leader for Amazon then I'm hoping someone creates such an IDE so I can use it as an appliance.
Maybe this has been done?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Come on. You can get a free connection at almost any McDonald's, coffee shop, etc. At least here in the US you can. Buying the tablet doesn't have to mean you must run out and buy an Internet connection.
Aside from that (which is probably a non-issue anyway, as Internet connections aren't exactly rare, tablet or no tablet), this isn't a bad tablet. We bought a couple for the grandspawn and one to use in the tub - far better to drop a $50 tablet in the drink than a more expensive device.
One (sort of) funny thing is that the Kindle app, Amazon's very own reading application, crashes now and then on this tablet. Probably just a bug, but it doesn't do it on my android phone, so... probably a tablet issue. They oughta get on that. :)
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
What can you really do with a closed piece of hardware running closed software?
The raspberry pi can inspire much more because both the hardware and software are open.
You mean it's a tablet even a warehouse worker at Amazon can afford?
If you call right now, we'll double the offer. That's right, two amazing Amazon Fire tablets for only $49.99!
Bill Gate's dream is a world completely run by proprietary software, and a business model subsidized by government enforced statutory monopoly.
Artificial barriers to entry is exactly preventing technology from being available to the underprivileged.
The idea that Gates wants ANYBODY to have cheap computing technology is laughable. Water? Fine. Anything more advance than that? Tough luck. Pay your lords, serfs.
It's enough for Facebook, Angry Birds, reading books and streaming Amazon video. It's a cheap tablet to keep kids occupied.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I got one too. I installed Firefox on it with adblocker and ghostery and use it as my main couch reading gadget with readly, feedly, and all the flip-thingies.
I got Amazon, Aliexpress and eBay and for buying stuff it's just great. Also to stream movies from my server to the bathtub. :-) , the case cost half the price of the tablet, a bit steep IMO.
I always get the toddler cases, because they allow a much more relaxed grip but in this case
it inspires nothing. It's a device wholly build around consumption of existing content and not creation.
Now, a $50 general purpose computer? That'll inspire something.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
All reports seem to state that the use of computers correlates with lower academic performance.
Maybe as a means of distributing open source text books economically to the neglected parts of the world, this might be a winner, but it's difficult to see that it would be more economical than a cheap printing -- a paperback costs little more than USD1 to print.
How does cheap technology like this mesh with Bill Gates's dream of putting a computer in every home, and projects like OLPC?
The geek can't let go of the media lab fantasy of a grade school classroom without teachers. I have yet to see any persuasive evidence that introducing tech at this level is of any value whatever.
Sure !
Those who can afford to own a fleet of Rolls Royce will be more than happy to be seen driving around in a Chevrolet
OT: What has the Amazon reading device gotta do with the African Americans?
nvm
Don't worry, with all the "features" that will get added, it will soon run as sluggishly as a dead badger.
I have a $50 android tablet right now that did use to work really well as long as I didn't use any Google services on it. As soon as I registered it for GMail and Google Play, it started running very slow. A couple "apps" later and it is dead slow. And the damn thing is technically more powerful than my 5yo computer!
Hardware gets better, software gets worse. Old story...
Sam Walton drove a beat up pickup truck despite his massive wealth so...yeah.
*snigger*
I also predict it inspire moar carpal tunnel syndrome, and near-sightedness.
I read the review and it says that the CPU is fast enough.
It does have four modern but low end 1.3GHz CPU.
okay its like $14.99 a month and you have a cap but...
If it's not locked to Amazon's walled garden, it's fine.
If it's like about any other Amazon device, then it's an expensive paperweight.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
First it's a Amazon fire tablet so it's locked down hard and the general public does not have the ability to root and install cyanogenmod on it. It's designed to get people to buy Amazon books, nothing more.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
What Might a $50 Tablet Inspire?
Surely it would inspire the same thing that a fucking color TV in every home has already inspired:
complete and utter stupidity.
Disgust. What else? Lowlifes who cannot afford decent hardware should not even be allowed to continue breathing.
"The only real niggle right now with the Fire Tablet is the display (and the camera, if you really want to take photos with your tablet).
What else is there to a table besides the display and the camera?
So, not made for reading?
A comupter in every home was not the dream of Bill Gates. It was the dream of guys like Woz, Ed Roberts, Les Solomon and the Homebrew Computer Club.
Bioll Gates dream was to have a Microsoft OS running on every computer on every desktop.
Yes. That's almost as bad as those 75Mhz, 100M or RAM computers that people used to use and not get any work done.
Firstly, the "information consumers versus information producers" comment is bang on the money. Running R&D in a business full of people, I have a great deal of data to prove those walking around with tablets contribute nothing.
Secondly, my children all go to schools that now put laptops and tablets in the hands of every kid, in the name of progress. What does it achieve? Kids wasting time in class playing games instead of learning, and teachers confiscating laptops and tablets every 5 minutes.
Teaching kids computers (or more importantly, the logic and skills needed to create things on computers) is important. Putting a tablet in the hands of every child without thought is not a means toward that end. Even more so when it's just a cheap tablet.
"There's simply very little reason to spend more when you can get 90 percent of the functionality for a fraction of the price"
Sometimes that last 10% of functionality is absolutely critical.
A window without glazing is just a hole in the wall.
A car without wheels is just a bench that makes noise.
A horse without legs doesn't go anywhere.
A tablet without the apps you need is just a toy.
I see used BlackBerry PlayBooks in online ads all the time. I'm typing on one right now.
Does one exist? It seems there are plenty of cheap 7" tablets to go around, but once you get into the 10" range the only cheap ones are Windows tablets. If you can make a $200 10" Windows tablet why are all the 10" Android tablets $350+? It makes no sense.
Of course this also begs the question -- why are all the Android phones in the $350+ range. If you can make a speedy 7" tablet with all the bells and whistles and sell it for $200, why is the equivalent with a SMALLER screen and a cheap cell radio go for two to three times as much, if not more?
7" tablets are too damned small, 10" tablets are too expensive, as are phones. Guess I'll stick to my old GS3 and my boyfriend's 10" Galaxy Note 2012. The pricing on this shit is all fucked up and I don't understand why no one seems to have an issue with the ridiculous pricing disparity.
The article lists:
"£150 (or $199)"
"£79.99 ($99)"
"£50 ($50)"
Which means a British Pound is $1.33, $1.24 or $1.00, depending on the price of the item you're buying.
This tablet is $50. And the latest Raspberry Pi 2 B is $40. If you add a power cord, case, and storage to the Pi, it is now ~$60. Imagine how many projects the tablet would inspire if it was reasonably programmable. Or how about the tablet without a battery and screen? Those are the two most expensive pieces.
Steve Ballmer drives a Ford Fusion Hybrid.
1) Amazon's Fire for $50 reels you to amazon.com today
2) You see it's outdated tech on fire sale
3) Stumble upon some very cheap China tablets with Windows 8 or 10 on them while on Amazon... with the ability to install Windows 10 spyware
4) Remember Bill Gate's dream of a computer in every home guys? Yeah my heart just got really warm and shit.
Stop fucking lying. This story is an Amazon ad with sprinkles of Windows bait on top.
If you want a computer in every home there's the $9 CHIP computer, do it. Bill could literally make "his dreams come true" personally by buying every single soul on earth a $9 CHIP computer. With high volume manufacturing, the cost per unit would even drop. But Bill doesn't buy you shit, he sells you out.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=7+billion+times+9
$63,000,000,000
https://encrypted.google.com/#q=bill+gates+net+worth
$79,200,000,000
It would leave him with a measly 16.2 billion though. Never mind, Bill. We wouldn't want to see you scraping pocket lint on a park bench someplace with a 40 oz of King Cobra.
It'd be a good bathroom tablet for taking a shit I guess, if you wiped their OS and your ass and put a custom ROM on it... but can you even?
I have scads of money. I drive a BMW. One of my favorite vehicles is a 1982 Volvo 245. I don't dress in tailored suits. I eat food that's grown or hunted or fished by myself - often/most of the time. I wear clothing from L.L. Bean. I have long, kind of, scraggly hair and a big ol' bushy and kinda gray beard. You'd not even know that I've accumulated some wealth unless I told you. I listen to rock and roll, I smoke cigars, and do a few drugs. Do you think that people just magically change because they have more in their bank account?
Silly kids.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
At $50, does Amazon make a tiny profit? Or is it a money-loosing product launched to kill weaker competitors?
It isn't just getting a tablet at $50, it is getting one that doesn't suck. lack of performance, storage and screen resolution means this device DOES suck for all but the most basic of purposes. Until the devices come a little more beefy (probably at a slightly higher price point) then these things really are going to mean SFA for gaming and/or education.
He also has a private jet, a luxury yacht and has a massive luxury house and is pretty well chauffeured every where he visits, he doesn't have much interest in cars is all that says.
And? None of those change the fact that he bought a cheap car just as they don't change the fact that other people with money will still buy cheap tablets.
As if we needed further evidence that "Ars Technica" is in Amazon's pockets - more like "Arse Amazon".
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
uhh. yeah.
that's enough for 100% of the apps that are not using ndk, which is like 98% of apps. few games might not run but android gta III will run just fine with 512...
I mean, where the fuck did you get the idea that 1gigabyte is not enough to run most popular apps?
do you even know how much normal dalvik style vm apps have access to memory?? WAY LESS THAN FUCKING ONE GIGABYTE - oh if they had there would be much less problems coding for it.
the typical heap sizes a single application has access to are around 64 to 256 - and on 4.0 even less.
so yeah, pretty much anything will run on it, besides it doesn't need to have that much memory anyways since the screen is lower resolution so the bitmaps don't take so much of the memory.. and it's the bitmaps that take most of the memory in almost any typical mobile application.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
A $50 tablet makes a expendable device for kids who might not always take care of a tablet. Also, for someone who wants a carry around device for coffee shops and such. Not sure so many need to spend $500 on a tablet to use it as most do? I personally could accept the lower resolution and the ads with it. I have no doubt the devices sold this Christmas will be of the cheap variety.
If it could boot most Linux distros un-modded, then would inspire me to buy a 50$ tablet. Other than that, tablets inspire actually absolutely nothing that is unique to themselves of all computer form-factors.
Yeah: e-waste.
And? None of those change the fact that he bought a cheap car just as they don't change the fact that other people with money will still buy cheap tablets.
I would say that people with money are almost more likely to buy a cheap tablet. Someone cash strapped might buy a $200 tablet as their primary computer device and share it among the family where a family with a little more money will still buy the $200 tablet but will also buy each kid their own personal $50 tablet.
With PDAs. The first generation of PalmPilots ran $129-$399, which is $200-$590 in current prices. As hardware prices dropped manufacturers began to beef up features and performance -- not that most PDA users really wanted that. What really was driving creeping features was the fact that unit margins on a device that cost, say $30, couldn't sustain the industry as it had come to exist. Eventually the pressure of dropping prices drove the PDA manufacturers into the phone business.
Again, convergence really wasn't really something driven by consumer demand, even though the "carry only one device" argument was reasonable. It was pushed by manufacturers. But it didn't really take off because early converged devices were Frankenstein's monsters -- PDAs with phones built-in or vice versa. It took Apple's iPhone to make the "carry one device" argument truly compelling to users by starting with a clean sheet and building a converged device from the ground up. It's ironic that today Apple is essentially the last man standing in the non-converged handheld market with its iPod Touch line.
If prices on tablets continue to fall, I expect history will repeat itself with manufacturers trying to wring a price premium from consumers by positioning their tablets as tablet+something else. The obvious paradigm is the convertible tablet/laptop, but I suspect we'll see other stabs at convergence, like adding gaming-specific features.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Allow shoppers to scan their items as they are going around the store. At checkout time, nothing needs to be taken out of the cart. Just pay and go.
we upgraded my sister's phone last weekend, and for $50 more we got a starter tablet at Verizon. the wifi is essentially free, as we have a large shared data plan, and of course it will be totally free at McDonalds, etc. on the web without DSL for a month's bill.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?