Android and the Race to the Bottom

by
in google on (#3MS)
story imageOne thing is certain about Android phones and tablets: it keeps getting cheaper to have one. HP has thrown itself into the fray with a $99 tablet boasting some mediocre specs and a great price tag:
The tablet rocks specs not that much better than HP's ill-fated Palm TouchPad. The 7-inch screen has a resolution of 1024 x 600 and the package is powered by an Allwinner Technology A31 SoC that features four Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1 GHz along with a Power VR SGX544MP2 GPU and 1GB of RAM. But it's only $99.
Get one now for cheap, so when they release Android 5 ("Lollipop") you can cash in on all the rumored new features , like fitness links, upgrades to security, audio, and video, and Project Hera , "Google's effort to unify the Chrome browser with Android and Search."
Reply 5 comments

Way Overpriced (Score: 1, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-05-22 17:56 (#1VT)

The same hardware is available for under $50 without the HP name.

What exactly is the point of this, other than to tarnish what's left of HP's brand?

I hope I'm wrong and that this thing is great.

Re: Way Overpriced (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-05-22 19:31 (#1VV)

Somewhere out there, David Packard is turning in his grave. Or maybe, Zombie Packard is out and about, haunting Meg Whitman and the other, previous CEOs that have driven HP from being field leader in so many technological efforts, to also-ran and box-pusher. Just threw out my HP 15C calculator last week; it had lasted since 1988 and was a great example of innovation, quality, and pride.

That said, I'm all in on a $99 tablet. Samsung charges more than that - why not go for volume?

Re: Way Overpriced (Score: 1)

by goody@pipedot.org on 2014-05-27 02:35 (#1XA)

The real Hewlett Packard is not HP, it's the test and measurement equipment spin off, Agilent. Unfortunately the line of calculators stayed with the printer ink cartridge company known as HP.

My 15C acquired in 1987 is luckily still going strong.

Touchpad (Score: 1)

by bryan@pipedot.org on 2014-05-22 21:37 (#1VW)

Wasn't $99 the same price as the HP Touchpad firesale? (After initially launching at $500-600 one month prior)

Granular app security, firewall, root? (Score: 2, Insightful)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-05-23 11:27 (#1W0)

A new chinese phone will come rooted which means easy firewall and better app permissions and phone security. So, will Android 5 finally giveus user set app permissions (no! you may not have internet access! denied and stop trying to enable wireless!) or an easier path to root?

Android is one of two horses in the mobile race... but will they give users what they need.

Meanwhile, My phone is powerful enough to run linux. Why make it hard to do so?