Crave an iPad but can’t handle the price? You’ll like this headline: Rival tablets ready to bite into iPad lead
“With pricing at around $100 and wireless broadband rolled out in both advanced and emerging economies to enable an “apps” infrastructure, this will definitely increase the size of the market,” says Richard Brown, head of marketing at chipmaker Via.
He expects its Prizm processors will be powering 50 tablets announced at Computex. Most will have limited memory and storage and will run web-based applications. With chips based on designs of the UK’s Arm and using Google’s free Android operating system, manufacturing costs can be as low as $60-$70, he says.
I think the fact that these models will be able to use Google Android software are thereby tap into the already huge number of “app” developers for that platform could make these “tablets” viable for folks who would otherwise balk at the idea.
IT folks seem to like the pads because they have less potential to upload viruses than a PC. If they can emulate Window 7 without losing speed, then they could become “standard issue” for teleworkers.
How about work at home professionals. That remains to be seen. Do you see yourself using this type of inexpensive tablet?
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