I just finished an overview post on the ever-interesting Notion Ink Adam slate over at Carrypad.com. As I researched the slate, I came away rather impressed with it. While we have yet to see production models, what Notion Ink claims to be bringing to the table with the Adam could very well surpass the iPad [Product page] in terms of power/battery life/features is this a result of a small company’s ability to take risks that a large company couldn’t afford?

Most of us are all too familiar with Apple’s practices. Step one for Apple usually involves boiling a product concept down and identifying key uses. Next, they design the product around those key uses and make sure that it works very well for them. Finally they produce a well polished product that generally brings existing hardware together with streamlined software in a way that outshines most products in the category, but because the device is designed around specific uses, they often force their users to do things their way.

Then along comes a relatively small company like Notion Ink. I’ve got to imagine that being small allows them to respond quickly to changes in the market as they are developing their product, which affords them the ability them to incorporate some bleeding-edge hardware (like a dual-core Cortex A-9 CPU, Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform, and Pixel Qi display.) Additionally, being open about the development of their device leaves the door open for feedback and constructive criticism which will all end up improving the final product.

It’s unlikely that Notion Ink will sell even half as many Adam slates as Apple sells iPads, but I feel that they have a shot at stealing relatively large chunk of would-be iPad users by being bold enough to include things like a swiveling camera and a rear trackpad. Of course much of this potential will be lost if the price isn’t right — as well as how long it takes them to get it to market (neither of which have been announced officially.)

And let’s not forget that both of these devices could fail pretty easily if their OSKs don’t function adequately.

I think this is a big opportunity for Notion Ink, and I really hope they are able to delivery everything that they have been claiming with this product. What do you think, dear reader? Would you take the Adam over the iPad if you could pick either for the same price? Let us know what your thoughts are in the comments below.

It always makes me laugh when I hear about $99 smartbooks competing with netbooks because the only real difference in cost is a few dollars in silicon, plastic and battery.

The other thing that makes me laugh is how people get hung up on parts cost and potential profit while forgetting the market reasearch, r&d, marketing, distribution, training, support, legal, insurance, shipping, tax and, shock!, profits associated with a device.

Have a look at this isuppli breakdown and you’ll see just how much a high-end smart device costs to make . A high end netbook selling 1m+ is coming in at about$150 due to the cheaper screens and lack of gps, accelerometer, hard drive and other components. The r&d and market research figures are also close to zero in the netbook market so you can see that large format smart devices have a long way to go before they become sub $200 desirable items.

Another good checkpoint is the Archos 5 Android Tablet which, with a similar integrated cpu and gpu, smaller battery, 8GB storage, 256MB RAM, less plastic, open source OS and a 5″ resistive touchscreen is being sold for $240.

Source : iSuppli.

iSuppli breaks down iPad cost, guess how much 3G costs | GottaBeMobile.com.

Maybe I haven’t been digging deeply enough, but I have seen anyone even mention this annoyance. I’m already a paying iPhone/AT&T customer, and I pay $30/month just for the 3G data component of my cellular bill. In fact, if you are an iPhone user, you are required to have the 3G data plan, which supposedly affords you “unlimited inch data. When you really look at the fine print, unlimited in today’s carrier vernacular generally means a 5GB/month cap on data, but still, I’m paying for those 5GBs of data, I should be able to use them as I please, right?

Yet, if I buy a 3G equipped iPad, the only way for me to use the cellular data is to pay an additional $30/month to AT&T, despite the fact that I’m already paying this fee for one device. Shouldn’t it make sense to be able to tether from my iPhone to the iPad to share the “unlimited inch data that I already have? Why on earth would someone need to pay for something that is unlimited… twice.

Way back in July of last year, I wrote about why I didn’t think it made sense for Apple to launch a tablet with any carrier at all, let alone Verizon as it was rumored at the time. Briefly — in that article I made the point that releasing the tablet with the capability to tether to an iPhone through bluetooth would increase the ability for Apple to market the device to existing iPhone users, instead of asking them to sign up for another plan. I still think this idea makes sense, and Apple may have actually considered it, but in the end AT&T probably wouldn’t have any of it as they are major jerks when it comes to tethering.

If you consider the sheer number of iPhones out there, you’ll see why it makes a lot more sense from Apple’s point of view to allow tethering from an iPhone to an iPad, rather than asking users to sign up for an additional data plan. Apple has sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 42 million iPhone’s. Sure, not all of those are in use, but there are a lot of people out there who are already on AT&T with their iPhone and their required $30/month “unlimited inch data plan. I’d say that all of those people are less likely to buy a 3G equipped iPad than someone who is not already paying for a cellular data plan.

If Apple went the tethering route, they could have reversed this situation. Instead of owning an iPhone (and subsequently already paying for a data plan) and being less likely to purchase an iPad because of it, iPhone users would actually be more likely to purchase an iPad because they’d be encouraged through the idea that they could simply tether and use their existing data plan to connect to 3G with their iPad.

If the past is anything to go by, there is a good chance that the ever active iPhone hacking community will figure something out for tethering to the iPad, though an official solution would be much appreciated, and make sense on a number of levels.

OK, they didn’t actually mention Origami once but as they talk around the target usage scenarios for the iPad, all I hear is praise for the market that, just a few months ago was a non-starter and is exactly what Origami was aiming for. The true personal computer is here, the sofa tablet is here, the comfortable web experience is here, the consumer-centric OS is here and it’s everything that Microsoft was aiming for with Origami but couldn’t deliver because they were 4 years to early. Technology and operating systems couldn’t turn their dream into reality and it died in a concept called Haiku.

Of course, now that the space between 4 and 10 inch is news, everyone is happy to praise it’s potential. Oh brother!

Despite my moaning (really, I should have shouted louder three years ago!,) the round table that was recorded on the Charlie Rose show (U.S. public broadcast) is a good one.

Charlie Rose had The Wall Street Journal/All Things D’s Walt Mossberg, The New York Times’ David Carr and our own Michael Arrington on his show Thursday night to talk about the Apple iPad

Source: Charlie Rose. Via:Techcrunch

Meet:Mobility Podcast 41 is now available. Recorded on 1st Feb 2010, JKK, Sascha and Chippy talk around the iPad and other mobile computing news including the Aspire ONE 532H, Archos 7, Dell Mini5, iPad, ExoPC, NetbookNavigator, Firefox for N900 and Adobe Flash.
Detailed show notes below.

SUBSCRIBE:
You can also find the podcast on iTunes (Please rate the show on iTunes.) You can also subscribe via RSS.

Full show notes available at Meet:Mobility.

Meet:Mobility Podcast 41 is now available. Recorded on 1st Feb 2010, JKK, Sascha and Chippy talk around the iPad and other mobile computing news including the Aspire ONE 532H, Archos 7, Dell Mini5, iPad, ExoPC, NetbookNavigator, Firefox for N900 and Adobe Flash.
Detailed show notes below.

SUBSCRIBE:
You can also find the podcast on iTunes (Please rate the show on iTunes.) You can also subscribe via RSS.

Full show notes available at Meet:Mobility.

Back in Dec 2008 I laid out the specifications for an iPod Plus. It was where I thought Apple would go next. I got the device size completely wrong; 5 inch is nothing like 9.7 inch but at least I predicted correctly that they wouldn’t be silly enough to bring out a netbook.

Apart from the from the sizing error though, I got most of the rest of it spot-on including the entry-level pricing, the ebook capability, the data-only 3G, the storage and most of the software elements. I also predicted that Apple could divert 5-10% of netbook sales and sell 1 million devices per year. We’ll see about that next year!

Unfortunately, Apple left out a few of the things I was expecting.

Hardware (can not be fixed until next model is released)

• Web cam
• Digital video out
• FM transmitter and receiver

Personally I can live without all of those but I’m still surprised they weren’t included.

Software

• Turn-by-turn navigation included.
• Multitasking
• Live widgets on home page
• Video/Voice over IP s/w.

Multitasking is the big personal disappointment.

I think Apple could still push out a 5-7 inch version of the iPad (iPad Mini) and include the missing elements (just like the 2nd-gen iPhone did) and of course, most of those missing software elements can be enabled through software updates.

That’s enough of me though, how about you? What were you expecting and what are you wishing for on the iPad?

How does this sound?

• ARM CPU at 600Mhz
• 256MB RAM
• Tailored Linux-based, finger-driven OS
• 8.5 inch touchscreen
• 20GB storage
• 2lb weight.

It’s the specs of the original, 2005, Pepperpad and a hat-tip goes to Len Kawell who was way ahead of the game in this space. In this interview he’s talking about how the Pepperpad is tailored for web applications, home usage, kicking back and checking facebook with a tailored user interface. ‘An alternative to a laptop for couch computing.’ It took four years until someone, Apple, came along to focus solely on the same market again.

Sofa, bed and car were usage scenarios I highlighted in my first weeks postings at Carrypad and from that, I chose the name Carrypad. (The first 5 or 6 posts on Carrypad were written weeks before I got round to setting up a blog.)

There’s the third device requirement popping out now Sofa, Bed, Car.
I tell you this is mini-tablet/micro laptop territory. The product group with no definition. We need a new definition here:

sofapod, stylepod, stylepad, lifepad, lifepod, midipod, midipad, intermidi. Mmm. Those names are all to obvious.
Lets try Carrypad. Yeah we’ll call it the carry-pad.

Article.

I’m so happy to see Apple moving into this space. It’s been too quiet for too long so lets hope that the OEMs and designers feel confidence from the iPad and lets hope that the market breaks out with new form factors, prices, operating systems and features. This is ‘personal’ computing space and the more designs we see here, the more customers will be happy.

The original Carrypad ‘journal’ started here.