NVIDIA's really promising the moon here, and if they even halfway deliver we could have a real "game changer" (as they say in the business) on our hands. What's on offer is a theoretical $99 slide-out keyboard MID, running a
Tegra 600 chipset and Windows CE -- NVIDIA, as usual, offers the innards and the concept, but will leave it to manufacturers to create (and price) the actual units. The device could handle HD video playback, "days" between battery charges and always-on wireless connectivity. This form factor lands in between NVIDIA's Tegra APX chipset for smartphones and ION GeForce chipset for netbooks, and if it actually delivers it seems like it could actually make MIDs viable in the market. Of course, there's the question of what sort of Windows CE skin it'll take to make this fun to use for the target market -- perhaps the fact that
Tegra is coming to Android in the near future is enough to make this all moot, but we're willing to give the $99 MID a fighting chance.
posted February 16th 2009 3:00AM
"theoretical $99"
Haha, you can say that again.
Can I have a theoretical touch screen too?
"Days" between battery charges? I think they said that on anything new that is more power efficient, yet in the end manufactures put tiny batteries so the the devices won't last longer than a couple hours under intended use.
my nokia n810 runs for 7 hours when in use and lasts for 10 days idle so they are right. both the n810 and tegra use ARM architecture and they are very power effecient
Seightan is right, and actually, in this announcement, it seems like the only believable thing.
99$ price point? HD video playback means at least a 720p (touch)screen. Such a screen would make the price higher than that on itself. Add some plastic around, the chip, the battery, wince licence, packaging...
Can't be.
Nvidia, prove me wrong please!
@ Bokal
Although the device may be capable of HD playback remember that if it came to market it would still most likely feature something like a 480x272 or 800x480 screen with the idea of the HD playback being no more conversion or output to a TV, so theoretically a $99 price point could be feasible - although I highly doubt any manufacturers who will producing and selling the device would agree.
CE? They're kidding, right? Even at $99, these devices are still going to require some kind of cellular data network subscription. CE is going to look horrible, compared to iPhones, Android devices, even Moblin MIDs that only cost another $100 up front and have the exact same monthly fee. What's next, netbooks running Windows ME?
Besides the more (infamous) Windows Mobile, WinCE powers anything from various embedded automotive and industrial applications, set-top boxes, and more. I think you are getting WinMo mixed up with WinCE because WinMo is just a skin on top of WinCE roughly speaking. The reason why most mobile phone maker uses WinMo over WinCE is that the OS and all of its applications (not just the UI) are developed for by Microsoft and the manufacturer could focus more on the hardware. With WinCE, the manufacturer pretty much get all the say on the UI design so saying that they will look horrible I think would be too early of a statement to make.
P.S. Believe it or not, there is also WinXP for Embedded Systems.
$99 is an insanely unachievable price point. Even if Nvidia was giving away their chips (and I'll bet vital parts of my anatomy they're not), the rest of the necessary components would cost more than $99.
Does anybody else remember when Origami UMPCs were announced and they were going to run for eight hours on a battery charge and cost less than $300? That was three years ago.
200$ and the possibility to install xp and im a happy man.
Why Windows CE? Surely they'd be better off shipping it with Ubuntu or something? CE is pretty redundant.
Run XP or go home. I've seen WinXP done on other MID's, they need to start making it happen on all of them.
I love me some cheap gadgets, but please do yourselves a favor OEMs/ODMs and don't price these devices at less than $250. I recently purchased a Razorbook 400 Wince, which is the supposed $100 netbook that ended up being $200. They didn't quite perjure themselves in their advertisements, but even I, a person with a lot of experience with Wince devices have been disappointed. It doesn't even seem to sync with activesync! Oddly enough when I had to RMA it (as on top of everything else mine was slightly defective) it looks like they're now sending me TWO of them...weird...but they do surf the web ok and playback video if properly scaled. Maybe I can unload them for 1/2 price on ebay and chalk it up to experience...
But anyway, rants aside, if they can make the basic device solvent at $100, GREAT. Now, put $150 more dollars worth of guts, functions, and software into it (GPS and an uber long life batt would be nice...maybe even 32gb more flash), sell it for $250 and EVERYONE will be happier...
Id probably buy a few of these at $99 a piece.......... Should be android though......
is it just me or is one of that photo incorrect, showing smartphones with OS being windows mobile yet a photo of an iPhone?
Want... but with Android... Not CE or XP.