Always interesting to get a peak inside these coveted electronics. With Motorola and Apple now clearly on the dual-core processor bandwagon for their tablet offerings, does that mean this is now a standard for this form factor going forward? I see Apple's new iPhone 4S announced yesterday uses the same dual-core A5 chip. Is Amazon's new Kindle Fire based on a dual-core processor as well?
Specs I've seen have the Kindle Fire based on the dual-core 1 GHz Texas Instruments OMAP (assuming version 5) processor. With all of the high-end graphics and processing power needed by emerging HTML5 code, it looks like multi-core will soon no longer be competitive advantage, but a requirement.
Yes, always great to see a product teardown. It appeals to the primal engineer in me; ogg, ugh! I'll never forget the first time I got to teardown a Ipod Touch that was dropped into a cup of coffee (it didn't survive). Such an impressive assortment of manufacturing techniques employed into these robust handheld devices. Good stuff, thanks!
I can't help but notice the iPad 2's impression, and therefore costly, bill of materials. Now that Steve Jobs has sadly passed, I expect we will see a raft of Android tablets which strive for highly cost-constrained BOMs.
I'm wondering if there's a market niche for a form-factor that's smaller than an iPad 2, but larger than an iPhone. Of course, the Blackberry Playbook fills precisely that niche, but it hasn't taken off for other reasons (namely, the software's not fully baked, and it's viewed as an enterprise product rather than a consumer one). The reason I posit the intermediate form factor is that I personally still prefer the iPhone, even though I have an iPad. I think it's the weight issue. I actually like the iPad better, but I find it far easier to read an iPhone when recumbent, its smaller screen notwithstanding.
Alex, I agree with you on additional size possibilities for tablets. So far, this product space has gained an unbelievable amount of traction in a short period of time. It's clear that users like the smaller sized devices and the basic touch interface. It's clear we will see an almost explosive number of new products in the next 12 months including smaller screen sizes.
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From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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