The market for tablet computers has been relatively sleepy until Apple’s big iPad announcement. Despite the hype, it’s not clear how big a market there is for tablets and which parts of the consumer and business segments will be most likely to open up their wallets to buy one.
HardwareCentral has the story on the latest entry, the aggressively-priced Moby from chipmaker Marvell.
Chip maker Marvell is taking tentative steps into the tablet PC fray with Moby, a prototype touchscreen device that supports Flash while boasting long battery life and a price tag that comes in at under $100.
While the device, a rare end-user product from a firm known for making semiconductors, is targeted at the education market, don’t chuck your textbooks just yet. Marvell says the design is just a prototype and at this point, it’s not sure if it will make and sell its own device or partner with a third party.
At the very least, however, the device signals the potential for continuing refinement and dropping prices in the tablet PC and mobile handheld device space, which is still feeling the reverberations following the January unveiling of Apple’s iPad. The latter starts at $499 — far below many analysts’ initial estimates.