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$125 MIPS-based Smart Tab 1 brings Jelly Bean on a budget to India

Sarah Silbert
Updated ·4 min read

A MIPS-based tablet was the first slate to officially run Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and the processor technology will also beat the crowds to running the new Jelly Bean OS. It might be second to the Nexus 7, but Karbonn Mobiles' new Smart Tab 1, available to the Indian market only, runs Google's latest software -- and its MIPS-based JZ4770 SoC, clocked at 1.2GHz, allows for the low price of $125. The 7-inch Smart Tab 1 itself isn't new -- it debuted with ICS in July -- but current owners will receive an update, and new units will ship with Jelly Bean. Other specs include a 2-megapixel front shooter, HDMI support, 3G support through a USB dongle and up to 32GB of expandable storage via the microSD card slot. Head to the press release past the break for more info.

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World's Lowest-Cost Android(TM) 4.1 'Jelly Bean' Tablet Shipping Now -- It's MIPS!

Karbonn Mobiles Now Shipping MIPS-Based(TM) Tablet in India

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jul 31, 2012 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- MIPS Technologies, Inc. MIPS -2.49% , a leading provider of industry-standard processor architectures and cores for home entertainment, networking, mobile and embedded applications, together with Ingenic Semiconductor, a leading China-based CPU provider for mobile multimedia applications, and Karbonn Mobiles, a leading mobile brand and provider of attractively priced multimedia phones in India, today announced availability in India of the world's lowest-cost Android(TM) 4.1 'Jelly Bean' tablet.

The Karbonn Smart Tab 1 tablet, which leverages the popular, ultra low-power MIPS-Based(TM) JZ4770 SoC from Ingenic, is available now to consumers in India. Priced at Rs. 6999 (approximately US$125), the tablet will be available via the Karbonn website, as well as numerous online portals and retail outlets in India such as Reliance Digital and Walmart.

The Karbonn Smart Tab 1 tablet was first introduced in early July with the Android 4.0 'Ice Cream Sandwich' operating system. An upgrade to Android 4.1 will be available to customers who purchased this earlier version of the tablet.

According to a recent ABI Research study, the Indian media tablet market is estimated to grow with a CAGR of 71% from 2011 to 2017. "2012 is an important year for media tablets in India as an increasing number of models designed for the India market become available at different price tiers," says mobile devices practice director Jeff Orr. "Keys to success for tablet vendors will be localized content, seamless connectivity, and providing an enhanced user experience."

"With its unmatched combination of high performance and ultra-low power consumption, the MIPS-Based Ingenic SoC was a natural choice for our new tablet. Long battery life, leading-edge features and a wealth of local content make the Karbonn Smart Tab 1 tablet an ideal product for the Indian market. Building on our success with mobile handsets in India, Karbonn is pleased to be a leader in bringing an Android 4.1 tablet to market, and the first company in the world to offer an Android 4.1 tablet at such an affordable price point. We intend to be the leading marketer in the Indian tablet market wherein we wish to reach up to 200 thousand units per month by focusing on enterprise business solutions segmentation, education, healthcare, hospitality and next-generation business verticals," said Pradeep Jain, managing director, Karbonn Mobiles.

"This new tablet demonstrates continued adoption of our cost-effective JZ4770 SoC in mobile devices. The JZ4770 SoC leverages the simplicity and elegance of the MIPS architecture, and features extremely low power consumption, 1.2GHz performance, and a high level of functional integration. Millions of tablets are already shipping around the globe based on our design, and we anticipate increasing success as more and more companies recognize the differentiation our solution can enable," said Qiang Liu, chairman and CEO of Ingenic Semiconductor.

"After joining with Ingenic to announce the world's first Android 4.0 'Ice Cream Sandwich' tablet in December, we have achieved numerous additional tablet design wins. Working closely with Ingenic and its OEMs, we are seeing increasing success for the MIPS architecture in tablets, especially in emerging markets such as China, Indonesia and now India. With our deep expertise in Android development, we are able to quickly port new versions of Android to MIPS-Based devices, with speed that is second only to Google itself," said Gideon Intrater, vice president of marketing, MIPS Technologies.

To learn more about the Karbonn Smart Tab 1 tablet, including features and availability, visit www.karbonnmobiles.com .

For more information about the MIPS-Based JZ4770 SoC and XBurst CPU from Ingenic, visit http://en.ingenic.cn/ .