Freescale is still showing just the i.MX51 and i.MX53 platforms at Computex, but this time, they emphasize the aspect of customizing tablets for niche uses, kind of providing for the long tail of the tablet market. Especially in the Chinese market, which could amount to 7 million tablets this year alone, Freescale has a pretty significant market share.
Category: Tablets
Qualcomm’s Dual-core is asynchronous, demonstrated at Computex 2011
Posted by – June 2, 2011
Qualcomm now has their dual-core super fast ARM processor in several products shown at this trade show, they demonstrate how they suggest that thekir asynchronous implementation is superior to competing Dual-core implementations, anyone got some benchmarks?
Nufront Cortex-A9 Tablet and Desktop reference designs at Computex 2011
They say that they can make a 2Ghz ARM Cortex-A9 Dual-core now, but for now they are demonstrating it at lower clock speeds on an Android tablet, an Ubuntu laptop and an all-in-one Ubuntu 11.4 desktop example.
7″ Honeycomb Viewsonic 7x shown at Computex 2011
Posted by – June 2, 2011
ViewSonic is showing their new Tegra2 based 7″ capacitive Android Honeycomb tablet, with a layer of their own vertical-only custom UI on top. The price is going to be $449 for the WiFi version and $529 for the 3G version when it gets released.
Hands-on with Nvidia Kal-El Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 1.2Ghz (or more) prototype tablet at Computex 2011
Posted by – June 1, 2011
This is Nvidia’s next generation Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 implementation that will be clocked at the minimum at 1.2Ghz but could be clocked higher by the time they start shipping these, with 12x faster graphics compared to Tegra2, huge video decode power at something that might look like Quad-HD video decoding. In this video I try to launch some of the early demonstration apps, animations and games that Nvidia uses to showcase their Kal-El performance in that prototype tablet.
Honeycomb is shown on the Intel Oak Trail Atom at Computex 2011
Posted by – June 1, 2011
Here I filmed a video with one of Intel’s software product managers who worked on porting Android Honeycomb over to the Intel Atom platform. Those reference tablets shown at Computex 2011, they are heavy, hot, fat, battery runtime is probably short while battery is much larger, some seem to run really slow through the UI, they are probably expensive. Though it’s interesting that after Google TV, Chromebook, Google is also not making it impossible for Intel to try to do whatever they can to try to keep up with change. I’ve tried to ask some Intel people if they plan to licence the ARM architechture, or/and to start manufacturing ARM Processors for Apple, Sony or others, and they seem to tell me that why not, could be possible, just rumors, but who knows..
HD Video Conferencing on Texas Instruments OMAP4430
Posted by – May 31, 2011
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, Computex, Android
Wow awesome. A few years ago I would film the HD video conferencing solutions that required $15 thousand setups (Lifesize, Sony Ipela, Cisco Telepresence..), now TI is showing HD video-conferencing that works on your next ARM Powered smartphone or tablet. Just connect your smartphone to your HDTV, use WiFi is available, but even over 3G and LTE, with just 512kbit/s you can do 720p video-conferencing on SIP or Skype, and with 1mbit/s upload or more you can even do 1080p video-conferencing using the latest OMAP4460 platform. This also can support up to 8 simultaneous videos. Sorry, but I am pretty much amazed. Soon enough, HD video-conferencing using just cheap ARM Powered devices will be a piece of cake.
Full Netflix support on Texas Instruments OMAP4430
Posted by – May 31, 2011
Texas Instruments supports the full required security features to support Netflix HD on an ARM Powered device. They are the first to showcase it.
Citadel 3D game on the OMAP4430
Posted by – May 31, 2011
Citadel is a very advanced 3D technology demo, it can be regarded as a way to benchmark the 3D performance of devices. So here it has been ported to the Texas Instruments OMAP4430 processor with SGX540 to showcase how advanced the 3D is that it can support.
VIA WonderMedia Prizm WM8710 ARM11 Gingerbread solution
Posted by – May 31, 2011
VIA’s subsidiary WonderMedia launches this new ARM11 platform for tablets, with a new much faster DSP for improved video playback, improved UI responsiveness, better graphics and 3D, the target still being to cheap low cost tablets which is a rapidly expanding market.
MHL now in several phones at Computex 2011
Posted by – May 31, 2011
Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) is now presented in several of the newest coolest smartphones and Tablets, including the Samsung Galaxy S2, HTC Sensation, HTC Flyer, Samsung Infuse, HTC Evo 3D, HTC Evo View 4G and more are going to be released soon.
Asus Memo, worlds first 7″ Honeycomb, they make it 3D even
Posted by – May 31, 2011
Check out this awesome 7″ Honeycomb UI, they had to put a 1280×800 7″ screen to support the current Honeycomb software, that’s the first time I see such high pixel density in a 7″ screen. Honeycomb will be further customized for 7″ and smaller screens, as they will resize icons so they get to be big enough for smaller screens, and all kinds of other screen size optimizations that Google and their partners are working on. The Asus Mimic is a cool Bluetooth headset basically, but feels more like an external mobile phone. You can dial on your tablet and talk in the bluetooth phone. I really like the idea of improving the Bluetooth accessories to function with 7″ tablets that thus can stay in the jacket pocket when you receive calls or when you dial numbers. For some reason, Asus does not want to release this product with a normal 2D screen, they want to wait and ship it with this 3D parallax barrier 7″ IPS screen. Let’s hope that does not add too much cost, thickness and weight and other worse screen quality artifacts to this otherwise pretty awesome 1280×800 7″ screen experience.
Asus Padfone, put the phone in behind the tablet
Posted by – May 31, 2011
This is Asus new announcement. Put their phone in a slot behind the tablet. I have tried to ask some of their representatives if this means only the phone has a processor, or if both the phone and the tablet have the same Qualcomme Dual-core processor, some have told me it’s got two processors, but someone else told me they both share the same processor. Logically there is a HDMI output and a USB Host connector in there. Dos this make sense to you? Or does it make more sense to put your phone in the pocket and the tablet wherever else you want to have it and a full power ARM SoC in each. Maybe it’s just Asus who doesn’t really want to charge double the price for this combination but prefers to try to provide the processor-less tablet as a $200-$300 accessory. This may be their Atrix dock.
Asus Slider, to be released in June
Here’s a look at the Honeycomb powered Asus Slider to be released in June. Asus says their Eee Pad Transformer is popular, is this one going to be as popular? Are they going to price this one as much as the Transformer plus the keyboard add-on?
3Gnet shows mockup of upcoming Qualcomm 8255 based Android tablet
Posted by – April 22, 2011
For now it’s just a mockup, 3Gnet is working with the Qualcomm Snapdragon development kit to prepare this Qualcomm 8255 based Android tablet.
3Gnet makes Intel Powered UMPC designs
Posted by – April 22, 2011
They make some of the famous Intel powered UMPC designs. I still think that those seem to be expensive, heavy, thick and slow to use which is why the ARM Powered tablets are #winning.
Archos dominates tablet sales at Hong Kong Golden Computer Market
Posted by – April 21, 2011
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Opinions, Rockchip, Texas Instruments, HKTDC Electronics Fair, Archos, Android
Archos surely seems to dominate in terms of nearly every store in Hong Kong that sells tablets have a range of Archos Gen8 tablets for sale right there at prime shelf space, while very few have the iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab for sale. It seems consumers and gadget retailers in Hong Kong Electronics Market regard Archos as great value, even as there might be cheaper “Archos Home Tablet” or “Arnova” grade tablets also being sold there, consumers who want high-end experience for low to mid-range pricing, still overwhelmingly choose the Archos tablets.
ABI Research recently speculated that Archos as being the third largest tablet maker worldwide in 2010. If Apple still has 85% in Q1 2011 and with 4.69 million iPads sold, that means Archos would have had to only sell 110 thousand tablets worldwide between January-March 2011 to remain at that 2% 2010 ABI Research speculative worldwide tablet market share.
My theory, Archos probably has more than 6% global tablet market share today
Archos officially released their Q1 earnings at 39€ Million ($56.7 Million) (up 158% from a year before), if an average Archos tablet is sold at $150 to retailers, that would mean Archos may have sold 378 thousand tablets between January and March 2011, that’s thus probably more than 6% worldwide tablet market share for Archos if Apple has 85%.
One things for certain, while the global market share is one thing, another is regional tablet market share, Archos was shown to have over 22% tablet marketshare in November-December 2010 sales for tablets in France, and may thus also have much higher than 6% tablet marketshare in markets like Germany, England, Hong Kong and even the USA.
Another thing to consider, Archos can only have as much marketshare as it can afford to build for.
If you consider Apple may have about 80% tablet market share in Q1 2011, and Archos let’s say 8% in that same period, here are some of the differences between those two companies:
- Archos has less than 150 employees mostly based in France, $56.7 Million Q1 2011 revenues, Market Capitalisation at $215,34 Million, probably has less than $20 Million in the bank to use for production enhancements, sales channels increase, marketing, manufacturing capacity increase, and R&D investments.
- Apple has 49,400 employees (329x more than Archos) mostly based in the USA, $24.6 Billion Q1 2011 revenues (433x more than Archos), Market Capitalisation at $223,77 Billion (1039x more than Archos), probably has over $40 Billion in the bank to use for production enhancements (2000x more than Archos), sales channels increase, marketing, manufacturing capacity increase, and R&D investments.
This is why Archos has started today issuing a capital increase of upwards $43 Million, a call to their investors to invest more money in new Archos stock. If investors answer the call (by May 4th), Archos may triple their bank account size, thus having more money to spend on increasing production capacity, smoothing sales channels, optimizing software/hardware R&D efficiency, and may gear up for trying to reach upwards 24% global tablet marketshare by the end of the year.
Considering the many new entrants to the tablet market, including major ones like Asus, Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo, etc, it might be hard for a small company like Archos to reach 24% marketshare in such a rapidly growing market. But who knows, in my opinion, it’s mostly a matter of cash, investments and being able to provide the best value. While Archos may triple their sales having 3x more cash in the bank for tripling production capacity (considering they can easily sell everything that they make), that does not mean they would triple their marketshare if the tablet market at the same time more than doubles in size. They might go from 8% to 12%, something like that. And if the tablet market triples in size they could remain at 8% in a 3x larger market.
TAL Electronics Corp shows NEC/Renesas Cortex-A9 533Mhz Dual-Core tablet
Posted by – April 21, 2011
Here’s another new ARM Cortex-A9 Dual-Core capacitive 7″ tablet. TAL also provides some educational software for tablets, with interesting online features, assignment collaboration for school classes, overlay highlights, drawings, note taking and more.
Quality Industrial Technology Co Ltd shows NEC/Renesas Cortex-A9 Dual-Core tablet
Posted by – April 21, 2011
Quality Industrial has a $80 Rockchip Rk2818 resistive (+$15 for capacitive) and they are also showing a 1024×600 7″ capacitive 3G-enabled NEC/Renesas ARM Cortex-A9 533Mhz Dual-Core based tablet for about $200 a piece.
Shenzhen Sailing Digital Technology shows Marvell 166 powered Tablets
Posted by – April 21, 2011
Tablets with GPS and cellphone function. With 3G the cost can be $184 in bulk. They also use the Telechips ARM Cortex-A8 for $130 without 3G. And they’ll use the next Marvell processor next month and Infotmic also.
