Amazon shook the consumer electronics market last year when it introduced the first sub-$200 tablet, the Kindle Fire. Many were skeptical of the online vendor's foray into electronics, but some saw it as a stroke of genius. By leveraging its vast library of online titles, Amazon set itself up to compete on content with the industry leader, Apple.
The Kindle Fire was an instant hit by combining Amazon's library of e-books, music, and movies with one of the lowest tablet price points featured quality technology, and it was strange then that few companies tried to replicate Amazon's model. Tablet manufacturers are still trying to compete with Apple, releasing products with specifications close to or better than the iPad. The result has been that few tablets under $400.
Perhaps only one company, Google, possesses the resources and the content to offer a tablet capable of taking on the Kindle Fire.
The first Google-branded handset, the Google Nexus One, was manufactured by HTC and was the first to be sold directly by Google to consumers. It served as the template for other Google devices like the Nexus S, the Nexus ONE, and the Galaxy Nexus. With each product, Google partnered with an established device manufacturer, focusing its own efforts on the user interface and optimizing its Android operating system for a particular device.
Google finally introduced its first branded tablet, the Nexus 7, at its I/O conference June 27 with a price tag of $199, meaning it will compete directly with the Kindle Fire. The Android OS, particularly Honeycomb, had long been used by iPad competitors. The Nexus 7 tablet also included the latest version of Android, 4.1, or Jelly Bean.
Like the Kindle Fire, the Nexus 7 offers specifications comparable to other tablets while also taking advantage of the rich library of applications that were available through Google's Android Market. Featuring a seven-inch display, the Nexus 7 also uses Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 processor while also sporting 1GB of internal RAM and the option of up to 16GB of storage.
The combination of a high-end processor, a multitude of applications optimized for Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and a $199 price tag for the 8GB model gives Google a chance to make a dent in the tablet market. Early indications are that the pre-orders for the Nexus 7 are substantial. If Google succeeds with the Nexus 7, the pressure will grow on Apple to introduce its own seven-inch model, the protests of the late Steve Jobs notwithstanding.
Click on the image below for an in-depth look inside the Nexus 7.
The Google Nexus 7 tablet as manufactured by ASUS.
These tear downs are always fascinating as you get a first hand glimpse at what actually goes into these electronics devices. I's amazing how much can be packed into such small real estate considering that the footprints are getting increasingly smaller and the total packages much more streamlined. I've been reading reports that Apple is working on a smaller, sleeker iPad. Let the games begin!
Beth, it is amazing what they pack inside. What is really amazing is what they pack in the chip. This one has a quad core CPU and a graphics processor. That is harder to see, though.
As for Apple, it will be interesting to see how they price it. In the PC realm they have always had a higher price point. Since there were no "clones" they could do that. They had some nice features, but these were often not really necessary. For two to three times the price, it is not worth it. This has limited their market share. Recently the MAC has been suffering in sales.
In the tablet market, they defined the market. On the other hand, the utility of the tablet is somewhat limited. I don't know too many who have gotten rid of their laptops when they bought a tablet. To me the smaller tablet is a good deal. I would want such a device for reading and web surfing, not much more. I know a guy who sold his iPad and kept his Kindle. He uses the Kindle to read books and it fits in the back pocket of his jeans if he needs to put it somewhere.
I agree with the fascination factor, and would not be at all surprised to see Apple come out with a smaller, sleeker tablet at the $200 price point.
I have a first-generation iPad, a Kindle Fire, and a MacBook Pro. In my opinion, the Mac wins, hands down. Call me old-fashioned, but I still prefer holding a book in my hands.
I'm totally with you, Jenn. My kids both have Kindle Fires, which they love, my husband lives on his iPad and I am not one single bit jealous. I love my Macbook laptop. Tablet form factor is too small for my liking and with my work, I'm too keyboard dependent. I also like to read a real book!
I am not at all surprised at the complexity since I have been witnessing my son using the Nexus 7 we got him for Christmas this year. It is an amazing tablet and I am in awe at the level of voice recognition it has displayed - I remember using voice recognition software in the past where you had to speak slowly and say the word very clearly. This tablet translates accurately to text a mumbling teenager! He is having a blast with it and so far functionality has been flawless...
Allan, for a fair price of $199, I feels Nexus 7 is worth. But I don't know how Google is able to deliver it for such a lower price by meeting all its specifications. Amazon has a different policy, even though they are selling Fire for $200, they are selling many items from Amazon.com through Fire. So they are considering Fire as a platform for business with customers. Google have any similar plan through Google play?
Well, one thing I believe is a factor is that Google is planning to upsell the 16GB version for a better profit margin to help offset the lack of profit in the 8GB version.
The only test question I remember from the Navy was a picture of a nail a screw and a hammer. You had to match two of the three up correctly. I guess I did better than most because they let me work on what we now refer to as "weapons of mass destruction".
For the life of me I can't figure what anyone (engineers) do with one of these things. It won't run any CAD programs I use. I can't type on it like I can on any other REAL computer. It has a battery that God-help-you when it needs changing.
These things need to be made of 100% bio-degradeable material so that 500 years from now someone digging around a previously used land fill won't find them.
The only people I know (non engineering types) play games on them. If I want to just "play" with the computer I draw/design something, many of the things which I never actually make but it makes my brain feel good.
I can only figure that Google ran out of warehouse space to store the tons of money they must have. After all they recently invested a billion or so in a company that makes new pictures look old.
Tluxon, I heard that Google is planning for a different business strategy, which is almost similar to Amazon Kindle. In Nexus tablet, they are planning for a wide variety of business through Google Play like amazon.com in Kindle. Without aiming a future profit, they cannot survive in a cost to cost model business.
My first computer had windows 2000. (Yes I was in high school back then) I fell in love with windows (blue screen aside) then i learned about Linux and started using Ubuntu (very slim OS runs wonders on my old windows machine even to this day). For about 4 years now I have played with Linux too. While they do not have the same amount of software available Linux is still a good OS. However with the craze of tablets and smart phones android is becoming a great buy (sorry apple I still don't believe that a billion useless apps are a good enough reason to purchase your overpriced hardware which you build with slave labor or almost slave labor) the Google app store while still maturing it is great. Everything is slim and basics. I assumed that eventually we had to take a step back and stop ourselves from building larger slower clunky software!!! This is it "Android". The hardware is great too however its largely so succesful due to the software.
Is this teardown another 'resolutely broken' piece of hardware? I'm still waiting for them to come up with one that can be repaired/reassembled by a yuck like me. Particularly that front glass. I have just seen so many of these tablets and phones junked on account of a cracked screen. Sure, $200 bucks is 'cheap', but it still breaks your heart when you drop it and have no options.
I'm sure they could make one that would be repairable. It would weigh about 5 pounds and be the size of a 1" loose leaf binder. They would sell approximately zero of them, even to people who say they want something repairable.
Honestly, I've had pretty good luck repairing stuff like this. All that can go wrong that is repairable is loose connections.
If you want them to stop using massively integrated chips that mean that pretty much every function is on one chip, so that you can replace them as needed, then increase the above estimate to 8 to 10 pounds and it would probably be more the size of a 2" binder, maybe more. And it would probably cost more like $1200.
Personally, I had a 7" tablet last year and it was OK but too heavy and too thick. it's thin and light and low power (therefore long battery life) that makes these worth having, and that's anathema to being highly repairable. Some things just aren't repairable, you need to get over it. You can't fix a CPU by cracking it open and soldering the silicone either, but nobody complains about that.
Last time I saw something readily repairable was a 1990s era Canon film camera. Actually had a mechanical shutter train. (shudder, horrors, etc.) Need I add that my former business has done a belly flop. Same with a side line fixing VCRs and cars.
It seems as though the reason for the FCC delay is the voice search feature rolled out in the Jelly Bean update to 4.1.1 just a couple days ago. Voice search is the patent Apple is defending that had halted the Galaxy Nexus.
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