When chipmaker Marvell told us its technology
would power $99 smartphones, we took the company at its word. We weren't expecting a sub-$100, 10-inch tablet PC, however -- and we definitely weren't expecting Marvell itself to build it. Marketed at students looking to lighten their textbook load, the Marvell Moby will be an "always-on, high performance multimedia tablet" capable of full Flash support and 1080p HD playback -- thanks to those nifty
Armada 600 series processors -- and supporting WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, GPS and both Android and Windows Mobile platforms for maximum flexibility. No release date has yet been announced; like the
OLPC, Marvell will introduce the Moby in pilot programs at participating at-risk schools. While it's far too early to say if the Moby will be the universal educational e-reader Marvell hopes (that depends on
software), it's certainly an intriguing device for the price, and we'll admit we're a touch jealous of those kids who'll first get to try one.
posted March 19th 2010 2:20AM
For the price I wouldn't mind getting one of these at all. Especially if the battery life is at least decent.
@midnightblade Makes you wonder if they'll copy the OLPC's Give 1 Get 1 program. Would you mind buying two for $200 even if you could only keep one of them?
@fencesitter
If that let me get my hands on it sooner, I would. I wouldn't mind paying 200 for this price, but as seeing it'd do some kid a favor, not such a bad deal.
@fencesitter
the $99 price would probably be a per-unit type deal to a school that is buying at least a couple hundred at once.
@midnightblade
Based on what..? Its black, has a screen, a home button and not iPad OS? hehehehehehehhe
@midnightblade Why? When you can be like that school county who used going paperless as an excuse to charge tax payers for a Macbook for every student for the low-low price of $970 each.
@midnightblade You would have to be on crack to believe this!!
Either total vaporware, or the price will more than double by release time with crappier specs.
Hmmm. let me see. $700 + a semester in books that will give me back trouble in 15 years, or that.
Hurry up and release this thing, so I can pick up an Android version on Ebay!!
Oh and full 1080p HD Flash? iPa.....ler
Fill in the rest.
@Slick
[d kil]
I win.
@Slick my thoughts exactly. since i spent $100 on a single book this semester i can definitely see the attraction. 1080p playback, Flash, Wi-Fi and a sub-$100 price tag makes me think its too good to be true. prove me wrong and i am definitely in for 1!
@Slick
And yeah, Apple's phones are probably ringing off the hooks right now with 400,000 angry people demanding their money back because they'd rather have a Marvell Moby Tablet.
@Slick
AVATAR THIEF! ;-)
Yeah, at this price I'd rather have one of these than the Coby $85 netbook!
@Slick How much do you think a book really costs to print on paper? Thats not where the ridiculous prices come from.
They will ensure their profit stream, but I agree, this is way more convenient. =)
@Ducman69
*cough*BitTorrent*cough*
Not long ago Marvell released $99 1GHz NAS development kits in the form of the Sheevaplug. Given the ARM MultiICE JTAG header on that dongle I'd say they're gearing up for another devkit.
@Sean Hollister, you don't have enough tags for this post
I use my tablet (convertible) every day at school. One thing any of these will need though is pen input, at least in my experience it helps a lot, and i've been trying to use various tablet computers in college since 05, pen input helps TONS. Just sayin. Still think this is totally awesome and the prices of all these new tablets just make me smile more and more and more! :) :) :)
For that price, I am totally hooked. Let's hope it will be released to consumers soon.
Wow im really impressed at what this offers for its price :D
Ill definitely pick this up, regardless of the battery life. Android on this thing will be SWEET!
In this case, your definitely gaining more than your losing regardless!
Textbook alternative? Where's the content? There are already plenty of textbook alternatives, from PDAs, classic Windows Tablets, eBook readers, Kindle, etc etc. The problem is, where's the content? The textbook publishing industry don't like this, and will not do it.
@pika2000
In the Marvell Moby Tablet Bookstore obvs!!!
@pika2000 Legally? Nowhere, unfortunately.
Other methods? All over the internet.
@pika2000 - well, you are right and wrong... The big textbook publishers who make huge profits printing and selling their products to a forced captive audience who will pay whatever the publisher chooses to charge - yah, they won't like it at first. However, those same publishers can buy the rights to a title, e-publish it, and even if they charge half of what they are now, they are making MUCH more per title since the whole printing, binding, storing, shipping overhead stream is gone from the equation. In the long run, it's more of a win for the publishers.
Also, professors and authors who might not normally be able to get their texts published have an amazingly flexible opening to get their stuff together. Example: one of my mechanical engineering classes had a nice big text book, then we had a printed text that was written by the professor, which fixed many of the text's issues and also showed us better ways to calculate and retain some of the data. The prof would have loved to have his own version of the text, but hadn't gotten through the publishing juggernaut to get it done yet. With electronic versions, he could have provided us his early beta copy and we would have been happy as clams (half the weight to carry around).
@Vrmithrax Point taken. However, that method has existed for quite sometime for your prof, and the devices are already out there. Still, we don't see everybody jumping in to electronic textbooks, both the big publishers and independents.
I don't care for students, I want one to play with. At $99 I'm sure those would sell like hotcakes, if Marvell can somehow produce a decent quality product for that price.
@refink
I think he's just juiced up on coffee right now in the early hours.
Hmmm, could be useful. Like the idea.
Pen input is a must!
@Jeff
Agreed. iDick would be an excellent the input device for this iMoby :P
I call bullsh*t. The BOM on this tablet must be more than $99. The LCD with the touchscreen alone is about $80. And this is not including stocking, marketing, warranty service and ... oh yes, profit
@alexfeinman Maybe. But I bet in time these prices will go down especially if the company will order in large quantities. But good news though kinda makes me wanna go back to school :)
@alexfeinman 10" screens are getting cheap. They produce about 50 million of those each year for the netbooks. I say it's likely with millions ordered, they can get a 10" Pixel Qi capacitive for $60 BOM cost. The other $39 would be for the rest of the electronics and batteries. Sure they can't do a 100 samples at that price, but the price is about mass producing them for millions of children.
@alexfeinman
Maybe it's not a touchscreen. I don't the word "touchscreen" anywhere in the press release, and that would make it cheaper. Of course, there doesn't appear to be a keyboard under the display.
Honestly, I'd buy this thing if it had no innards and was just a $99 touchscreen monitor.
Andriod may be a better choice for schools because they can upgrade the OS without having to worry about costs to schools or students.
What makes everyone think just because it's an electronic version they're going to give you a $300 text book for free?...
They'll probably charge a convenience tax.
@Jono20 Schools will come together and put the textbooks in some kind of wiki, or Governments could change the rules and make all the textbooks free. Books are free to borrow from the library already. Consider this is a digital library. We'll pay the authors $5 per month through taxes, just expanding the contributions toauthors from libraries.
I'm waiting for the courrier, I dont know about you guys, but this is the revelation for college students. from what I have seen it will blow our minds.
too bad Microsoft isn't releasing it quick enough :(
I just love how their ARMADA 600 series is described as "one of the industry’s first running ARM v7 instruction set."
... Meanwhile ARM v7 has been around way longer than October 2009, when Marvell announced the 600 series.
If you're after TI, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Apple, Ziilabs, and I'm sure many others, can you still call yourself "one of the first"?
Can one upgrade to a dongle that has a plastic case?
@BKKKevin
That's an additional 200$.
Doesn't matter how good the device is, if it is filled up with the garbage coming out of the Texas School Board, the device will be useless as an educational tool.
I want to see more stuff like this. Decent processing power, low price, and super long battery life: if it was a netbook instead of a tablet I'd be lining up to buy a handful of them now, even though it's still just a prototype...
**** Where are all the ARM netbooks we were promised?!!! ****
isn't that the ijailbreak dongle plugged in ?
lol
$99? Damn, I'd get one or two at that price. Release this for regular consumers as well!!
Exactly what I was talking about when I said competition (for ipad) will come, Where do i buy it ?
keep the voice down guys - we'll make the price high
Stupid crap like this is why the gimped ipad will win.
ANNOUNCE WITH A RELEASE DATE AND A PRICE!
Every ipad competitor is coming out with murky availability and nebulous pricing! Come with a date & the $99 firm & I'll preorder 3 today.
FYI. $99 is the price to beat on Android Tablet these day. These guys are not the only one promising it.