The future of the $200 tablet

You'll soon be able to get a lot more value for a lot less money. 

Spending $150 to $200 on a tablet won't get you much these days: In most cases, you're looking at an off-brand Android product with a single-core processor, barely any RAM and a low-resolution, low-quality display. Depending on the device, you might not even have access to Google's app market or other basic services -- and while that approach may work with retailer-backed, limited-use products like Amazon's Kindle Fire, when it comes to more traditional Android tablets, it doesn't usually lead to the best user experience.

The budget tablet strategy

The Android tablet challenge

Low-end tablet competition

It's a stark contrast from what you get at the high end of the tablet spectrum, where $500 and up will buy you quad-core processors, a full gigabyte of RAM and eye-popping screens. Even midrange devices, which tend to have last year's hardware, are capable of delivering decent results. But once you hit that sub-$200 range, it's like you've entered a different dimension -- one filled with glorified e-readers and sluggish, subpar slates.

Get ready, though: That dimensional difference is due for a change. A major shift is brewing, and it could bring about the biggest transformation we've seen to the tablet class divisions. Put simply, budget-conscious buyers are about to get a lot more bang for their buck.

The tablet class shift

The first signs of the pending tablet class shift showed up in January, at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. There, hardware maker Asus showed off a 7-in. tablet powered by Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad-core processor. 

"One size doesn't fit all," Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang declared, citing the need for "different strokes for different folks."

Asus and Nvidia described a tablet that would run Android 4.0, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich -- the latest version of Google's mobile operating system. An early prototype of the hardware featured a 1280-x-800-resolution IPS display; 1GB of RAM; micro-USB, micro-HDMI and microSD ports; and two cameras, including an 8-megapixel rear-facing lens. Hands-on reviews of the product were glowing: One blog touted the tablet's "blazing fast" speed, while another talked of its "bright, vibrant screen."

Perhaps most impressive of all, though, was the tablet's price tag: $249 -- a seemingly impossible cost for a device of that caliber. But this was no mistake.

"As we continue to see the volume of existing tablets increase, prices naturally come down on component cost," explains Nick Stam, Nvidia's director of technical marketing. "You'll see a number of devices coming out this year that will be lower cost than what you've been used to."

Indeed, $249 may be only the beginning. Rumors have been rampant that Google is working with Asus on a product similar to the 7-in. tablet introduced at CES, only with a price closer to the $150 to $200 range. Numerous reports suggest the tablet will run a "pure" version of Google's Android operating system, with no manufacturer modifications, and will be a joint effort between Google and Asus -- similar to Google's work with other hardware manufacturers when creating its Nexus and "Google experience" devices.

While Google representatives won't comment on rumors and speculation, the evidence is certainly starting to stack up. A quick search of the Internet turns up no shortage of purported leaks and insider winks. Sources close to the situation with whom I've spoken have discussed the project with a similar level of certainty, pointing to this June's Google I/O developers' conference as the time when the details -- and perhaps the product itself -- will be unveiled.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Nvidia's Huang strongly hinted that an Android tablet running his company's Tegra 3 processor would debut this summer for a cost of $199. "We took out $150 in build materials, things like expensive memory," Huang is quoted as saying. "At $199, you can just about buy a tablet at a 7-Eleven."

So how are prices on such seemingly high-quality devices suddenly plummeting so low? While Nvidia points to falling component costs, some analysts suspect there's more at play.

"Companies just aren't making much of a profit off of these tablets," says Rhoda Alexander, director of tablet and monitor research for market research firm IHS iSuppli.

Alexander notes the success of Amazon's $200 Kindle Fire tablet, which -- while relatively limited in both performance and capability -- has sold exceedingly well. For Amazon, Alexander says, it isn't about making money off the hardware itself; it's about making it easy for customers to spend money with the company every day.

"Where they're making the profit is in the long term of bringing people into the Amazon universe," Alexander says.

Amazon's strategy is clearly winning people over: The company accounted for more than half of all global tablet sales in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to IHS iSuppli's estimates, shipping 3.9 million Kindle Fires and shooting past Samsung to become the world's second-largest tablet shipper for that quarter.

In the bigger picture, with the help of Amazon's product -- which runs a highly customized, almost unrecognizable version of the Android 2.3 OS -- Android's share of the tablet market is slowly but surely starting to rise. Research by market analysis group IDC (which is owned by International Data Group, the publisher of Computerworld) showed that Android owned 44.6% of worldwide tablet sales in the fourth quarter of 2011 -- a 38% jump from its position in the previous term.

Much of that growth came at the cost of Apple. The iPad maker, while still experiencing strong growth, dropped 11% in total market share in 2011 from quarter to quarter, according to IDC, coming in with 54.7% of tablet sales for the final three months of 2011.

The million-dollar question now is whether Amazon's model of success can extend to the rest of the Android tablet market, which thus far has struggled to take off. While many analysts predict continued growth for Android overall -- Gartner, for example, forecasts Android tablet sales increasing eight-fold over the next five years -- some industry experts question whether playing the price game will be enough.

"Lowering the price on Android tablets will help, but that in and of itself won't sell the products," contends Sarah Rotman Epps, a senior analyst with Forrester Research.

Epps argues that products like tablets are as much about their interface as their hardware: You buy an Amazon tablet because it provides simple access to Amazon's content, just like you buy an iPad because it makes it easy to get and use stuff from Apple's iTunes store. The hardware matters, she says, but it isn't everything.

"Amazon has been successful because it does a great job delivering on the customer relationship -- the transaction," Epps explains. "A cheaper device from Google doesn't fix its shortcomings in that area."

Google may not have reached Apple's or Amazon's level of marketplace success, but it's working to get closer. The company has taken steps toward improving its mobile ecosystem over the past months, integrating its marketplaces for purchasing movies, books, music and mobile apps, and then rebranding it all as "Google Play". Still, fighting the perception that the Android tablet ecosystem is lackluster may be Google's greatest challenge in establishing itself as a major tablet player in the months ahead.

"Google has spent more than a decade training consumers to associate its brand with 'free,' and now they're trying to retrain consumers to transact with them," Epps says. "That's a hard sell. Part of making Android tablets successful is convincing consumers that Google has a marketplace where they want to do business."

One way or another, the lower end of the tablet market seems to be an area where Google thinks it can thrive. In the company's quarterly investors' conference call this month, CEO Larry Page acknowledged the success of "lower-priced tablets" using "not-the-full-Google-version of Android" and touched on the company's plan to pursue that segment of the market further.

"We definitely believe that there's going to be a lot of success at the lower end of the market ... with lower-priced products that will be very significant. It's definitely an area we think is quite important and that we're quite focused on," Page said.

Frequent Google partner Samsung already seems to be on the same page. The company just launched a new 7-inch version of its Galaxy Tab tablet that bears an eye-catching $250 price tag with hardware that exceeds the typical budget-tablet model. With that device and the even more attention-grabbing products on the horizon, we could soon see a change in the very notion of what a "low-end tablet" means.

For makers of existing budget tablets, that may mean being forced to drop even lower in price in order to stay relevant. The logic is simple: If you can buy a quad-core tablet with an impressive display and full Google services for $150 to $200, why would you pay the same cash for a second-rate alternative?

"Wherever the ceiling is set for these new tablets, the budget manufacturers will aim for a yet lower-cost version of that," IHS iSuppli's Rhoda Alexander predicts. "They're playing in a different ballpark and will continue to fill a niche within the market."

And let's not forget: Android manufacturers may not be the only players looking to cash in on lower-priced tablets. The always-present rumors of a 7- to 8-in. Apple iPad are picking up steam, with many predicting the advent of a $300 "iPad Mini" before the end of the year.

One thing's for sure: As more companies move into lower-priced territory and duke it out for market share, it's the customers who will reap the rewards. After all, in a world where the same dollar seems to buy less with each passing year, getting a better tablet for a lower price is something anyone can appreciate.

SOURCE: JR Raphael is a Computerworld contributing editor and the author of theAndroid Power blog.

Samsung reveals chip for next flagship smartphone

Samsung Electronics has introduced the 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Quad processor, which will power the next Galaxy smartphone, the company said on Thursday. The processor has four cores but uses less power than its dual-core predecessor.

It is scheduled to launch its next flagship smartphone, which is expected to be called Galaxy S III, on May 3 in London.

Samsung still hasn't confirmed the name of the phone. But said that the ARM Cortex A9-based Exynos 4 Quad is already in production and is scheduled to be designed first into Samsung's next Galaxy smartphone that will officially be announced in May.The processor is particularly well-suited for heavy-load applications such as 3D games, video editing, and calculation-intensive simulation, according to Samsung. In addition, it has a video hardware codec engine for 1080p video recording and play-back, it said.But Samsung also had battery consumption in mind when designing the processor. Due to its low-power process and power-saving design, the Exynos 4 Quad "has two times the processing capability" of its dual-core predecessor "while consuming 20% less power," according to the company. For example, the processor can switch off cores to lower power consumption when all the power isn't needed, Samsung said.

A quad-core processor was one of the expected improvements to be included in the Galaxy S III, compared to the dual-core processor in the Galaxy S II. The phone is also expected to have a 4.6-inch display with a 1280-by-720 pixel resolution, as well as an 8-megapixel camera and LTE connectivity for some parts of the world. Exynos 4 Quad is sampling to other major handset makers, which means they can get their hands on smaller volumes of the processor.

Can Dropbox, other cloud providers survive Google Drive?

Google's low pricing is attracting the attention of existing cloud users

The 800-pound gorilla has landed and is leveraging its existing relationship with hundreds of millions of users to port them to their cloud storage and file sharing service Google Drive. Can smaller cloud storage players survive this assault?

"When the 800-pound gorilla jumps in the pool it usually makes a splash. It doesn't mean it can swim well. There is room in the market for multiple players, but Google's entry puts pressure on the competition, especially smaller players," said Gartner Research Director Michael Gartenberg.

Like Apple and Microsoft, Gartenberg noted that Google has a relationship with a millions of consumers who use its Gmail, Google Docs, Chrome web browser and any number of other applications. Because of those existing relationships, Google has an advantage in being able woo existing customers over to its new storage and synchronization service.

While Google Drive will no doubt compete with Microsoft's SkyDrive and Apple's iCloud, the companies more at risk are smaller specialized service providers, such as DropBox, Box, SugarSync and YouSendIt. Those sites have appealed more to technology enthusiasts, not average consumers. And, when it comes to adoption, relationships matter.

World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD), 2012

About the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

The purpose of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is to help raise awareness of the possibilities that the use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) can bring to societies and economies, as well as of ways to bridge the digital divide. 17 May marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union.  World Telecommunication Day World Telecommunication Day has been celebrated annually on 17 May since 1969, marking the founding of ITU and the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865. It was instituted by the Plenipotentiary Conference in Malaga-Torremolinos in 1973. World Information Society Day In November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society called upon the UN General Assembly to declare 17 May as World Information Society Day to focus on the importance of ICT and the wide range of issues related to the Information Society raised by WSIS. The General Assembly adopted a resolution (A/RES/60/252) in March 2006 stipulating that World Information Society Day shall be celebrated every year on 17 May. World Telecommunication and Information Society Day In November 2006, the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, decided to celebrate both events on 17 May as World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. The updated Resolution 68 invites Member States and Sector Members to celebrate the day annually by organizing appropriate national programmes with a view to: stimulating reflection and exchanges of ideas on the theme adopted by the Council debating the various aspects of the theme with all partners in society formulating a report reflecting national discussions on the issues underlying the theme, to be fed back to ITU and the rest of its membership

পুরো তেল ক্ষেত্র ইন্টারনেট বিচ্ছিন্ন করে দিল ইরান

সম্প্রতি জানা গেছে, ইরানের তেল বিষয়ক মন্ত্রণালয়ের পুরো কম্পিউটার নেটওয়ার্ক হ্যাকারদের আক্রমণের মুখে পড়েছে। এতে করে, নিরাপত্তার স্বার্থে দেশটির প্রধান তেল রপ্তানির টার্মিনাল ইন্টারনেট থেকে বিচ্ছিন্ন করে দেয়া হয়েছে বলে সূত্র জানিয়েছে। খবর ইয়াহু নিউজের।

সূত্র মতে, প্রথমে সাইবার আক্রমণের ফলে কিছু তথ্য আক্রান্ত হলেও মন্ত্রণালয় তা পুনরুদ্ধার করে নেয়। এ ছাড়াও তাৎক্ষণিকভাবে তেল সংক্রান্ত কাজকর্মে কোনো আক্রমণ করা হয়নি বলেও জানানো হয়।

কিন্তু শেষ পর্যন্ত খার্গ আইল্যান্ড অয়েল টার্মিনালসহ মন্ত্রণালয় ও তেল বিষয়ক বেশকিছু গুরুত্বপূর্ণ অফিস ইন্টারনেট থেকে সম্পূর্ণ বিচ্ছিন্ন করে দেয়া হয়। কম্পিউটারের মাধ্যমে ছড়িয়ে পড়া এক ভাইরাসের ফলেই নিরাপত্তার স্বার্থে এসব অফিসে ইন্টারনেট সংযোগ বিচ্ছিন্ন করা হয়েছে বলে সূত্র জানিয়েছে।

ইরান কর্তৃপক্ষ জানিয়েছে, যুক্তরাষ্ট্র ও ইরানের সঙ্গে বহুদিন ধরেই তারা প্রযুক্তিগত যুদ্ধে জড়িত।

US Authorities Will Help Secret Web

The American government spends millions of dollars helping activists communicate and bring down their own governments. It does so in frames of the project called Commotion Wireless, putting the fear of god into the spooks of different authoritarian regimes.

According to the local media, the project in question is aimed at undermining online filtering in such countries as Iran and Syria. Meanwhile, the biggest problem of the United States is that it receives email inquiries there which purport to be sent by pro-democracy activists from out there, but actually come from spies.

Commotion Wireless is run by Sascha Meinrath and although it gets shedloads of American money, it’s based on some of the better ideas of online community access. The project is designed in such a way that it allows a smartphone to connect with others, thus creating a “mesh network”.

Meanwhile, there are some good reasons why western governments wouldn’t like to see technology of this kind deployed in their own countries. The United Kingdom, for instance, is willing to monitor each and every email just in case it happens to relate to terrorist activities. Nevertheless, in case this sort of technology becomes available, it would mean that the only people found in the government’s database are the ordinary people.

Undoubtedly, Meinrath’s secret web will be a major headache for everyone willing to stop anything on the Internet. If this technology is enforced in Iran, Syria or China, this move will allow opposition groups to freely talk to one another. Nevertheless, it’ll also weaken regimes backed by the United States like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. You may remember that both Egypt and Libya had Internet coups, which resulted in regimes that the United States didn’t like either.

আসছে অ্যাডোবি সিএস সিক্স

সম্প্রতি ভিজুয়াল কনটেন্ট সফটওয়্যার জায়ান্ট অ্যাডোবি জানিয়েছে, শিগগিরই তাদের বহুল ব্যবহৃত ক্রিয়েটিভ সুটের পরবর্তী সংস্করণ সিএস৬ বাজারে আসছে। খবর ইয়াহু নিউজ-এর।

অ্যাডোবির এই ক্রিয়েটিভ সুটে রয়েছে ভিডিও সম্পাদনা, ছবি সম্পাদনা, গ্রাফিক ডিজাইন থেকে শুরু করে বিভিন্ন সফটওয়্যার যা দীর্ঘদিন ধরেই ইন্ডাস্ট্রি স্ট্যান্ডার্ড বলে বিবেচিত। তবে নতুন এই সুট একটু অন্যভাবে বিক্রির পরিকল্পনা করছে অ্যাডোবি। প্রতিষ্ঠানটি জানিয়েছে, একেবারে সফটওয়্যার বিক্রির পরিবর্তে মাসিক গ্রাহক ফি হিসেবে ক্রিয়েটিভ সুট দেয়া হবে। ব্যবহারকারীরা এক বছরের জন্য গ্রাহক হলে মাসিক ফি পড়বে ৫০ ডলার। এর মাধ্যমে একজন গ্রাহক অ্যাডোবির বিভিন্ন প্রোডাক্ট ডাউনলোড করতে পারবেন।

বাড়তি সুবিধা হিসেবে থাকছে অ্যাডোবি ক্রিয়েটিভ ক্লাউড সুবিধা যার মাধ্যমে ব্যবহারকারীরা তাদের সব প্রজেক্ট ফাইল ক্লাউডে তথা ইন্টারনেটেই রাখতে পারবেন। এই পদ্ধতিতে শুরুতেই শত শত ডলার খরচ না করে প্রথমে প্রোডাক্ট সম্পর্কে ধারণা পাওয়ার সুবিধা পাবেন নতুন ব্যবহারকারীরা। তবে ক্লাউড সেবা বাদ দিয়ে কেবল সফটওয়্যারটি পাওয়া যাবে কি না সে সম্পর্কে এখনো কিছু জানা যায়নি।

MegaUpload’s IPO

Before getting shut down, Kim Dotcom’s empire was preparing to “take over” the American stock market with a multi-billion dollar IPO. The cyberlocker willingly told about its project.

Before its closure, MegaUpload was guarded by a group of devoted lawyers having the only purpose to ensure the legitimacy of the service. Kim Dotcom was saying that his firm was getting ready to enter the American stock market via one of the biggest tech IPOs ever. Prior to the raid of American authorities, cyberlocker hold negotiations with the world’s largest accountancy companies, offering them to become auditors, while international banks were interested in underwriting the public offering. MegaUpload was also looking into becoming publicly listed through a reverse merger by purchasing a listed company.

According to one of the corporate advisors from Hong Kong who was helping MegaUpload with this goal, the preparations started in early 2011. The company’s management had negotiations with the largest international professional accountancy companies handling most of audits for publicly traded companies. The firms were invited to become the company’s auditor and to work together with management to help cyberlocker with an IPO. Their job was to prepare management and corporate restructuring in order to improve efficiency and management of the group, as well as to review and improve internal controls and corporate governance processes within the service.

Aside from audit, MegaUpload was also trying to convince some of the largest investment banks to help them with the IPO plan. Those were quite interested about the proposal, because as long as the cyberlocker provided the commitment and flexibility to follow the recommendations of the professional companies to get ready for an IPO, there shouldn’t have been any problems.

Indeed, the online service was growing at a fast rate and was a definite leader in its field, but in early 2012 the US government for some reason decided to shut the service down, arresting people connected to the site. However, the company’s preparations for IPO don’t fit with the “Mega-Conspiracy” concept that company’s management was accused of. These facts make industry observers wonder whether the American government even knew about MegaUpload’s plans or not. Nevertheless, the company’s plans for the future can be considered a testimony that the service truly believed in a transparent and legitimate business.

Facebook Petition Against Web Snooping

A Facebook petition has recently been launched to protest online snooping legislation suggested by the authorities, which aimed at bombarding Home Secretary Theresa May with tons of irrelevant emails.

The group named “National cc your emails to Theresa May Day” suggested to show opposition to new powers for tracking Internet communications by copying May’s address into all letters sent during one day. This protest is scheduled to start on the oncoming May Day, the 1st of May. Thus far, the group has over 13,000 members.

Although the very idea of helping the authorities in tracking online communications by copying the Home Secretary into every email sent seems tongue-in-cheek, its purpose is to emphasize the wave of public bad feelings over the too controversial plans.

The country’s authorities have faced condemnation of plans that implied creating a database of emails sent within the United Kingdom, with the excuse provided being the common reasons of terrorism and pedophiles. As for Theresa May, who approved the British citizen Richard O’Dwyer’s extradition to the United States, she is seen to be trying to push through the proposed laws as quickly as she could, paying no attention to the outcry from both civil liberties campaigners and opposition within the Coalition.

One of the Facebook group’s members admitted that he had joined the group just to protest a move to an “authoritarian society”. He believes that this Coalition government, which continues the work of the other big business party in New Labour, is only plunging the country into an authoritarian society. He claims that neither Theresa May nor her colleagues are interested in their citizens aside from exploiting and monitoring them, trying to kettle ideas. It was rightly pointed out that the web is a great invention which enables people with knowledge, while for the politicians it serves them better to keep people stupid. For example, the proposed laws, which many netizens hope won’t pass, represent an unacceptable attack on personal freedoms.

Although changing government plans might appear difficult, group members still hope that they will be able to somehow widen protests against the proposed policy. Of course, they don’t believe the move they scheduled will achieve anything, but giving Theresa May and her assistants a headache for a day is still a little victory.

Overstated Losses Due Online Crimes

A couple of Microsoft’s insecurity experts are sure that cybercrime losses are overstated. Dinei Florêncio and Cormac Herley are leading researchers at Microsoft Research, and they claim that although the idea is widespread that the global economy is losing around $1 trillion annually because of cyber crime, in fact the reality is not that impressive.

The researchers point out that if it’s possible to make a fortune by downloading and running software, there would be millions of people doing so. The experts took a look at piracy and cybercrime from an economic point and revealed that only a few criminals do well. As for the rest, they believe that cybercrime is only a low-profit struggle which isn’t even worth the effort.

Basically, such cybercrimes as spam and password-stealing feature the same economics as the fishing industry, and since fish stocks are driven to exhaustion, there will never be enough “easy money” to go around. The researchers believe that cybercrime estimates are mostly generated through using absurdly bad statistical methods, depending on the surveys made by consumers and companies.

In case 5,000 people are asked to tell about their cybercrime losses, it will only take one person to falsely claim he or she lost $25,000 due to scam to add $1 billion to the overall estimate. Taking into account that those people who never lost anything aren’t considered, the statistics for these anomalies aren’t cancelled out.

The experts explained that in cybercrime surveys they have examined 90% of the estimate came from the answers of 1 or 2 people only. According to their report, cybercrime billionaires can’t be located simply because they don’t exist. In the meantime, few people know anyone who’s lost a huge amount of money as the victims are far rarer than the exaggerated estimates would imply.