Marvell brings out a $99 Tablet

It is mainly aimed at the education sector

The education sector, especially in the third world countries have seen a lot of improvement in infrastructure of late – one of them being able to get access to highly affordable but in no means inferior computers. We have to thank largely to initiatives like OLPC for this, and Marvell seems to join this list big time.

The Santa Clara, California integrated silicon solutions company has unveiled a Tablet that has a decent configuration and carries a price-tag of $99 only! The Moby Tablet prototype supports an always-on and connected feature, real-time content, 1080p full-HD and 3D media, and full Flash Internet. Marvell mainly envisions the elimination of having to carry heavy schoolbags.

"Education is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country and our times. I believe the Marvell Moby tablet can ignite a life-long passion for learning in all students everywhere.  Marvell's goal is to fundamentally improve the way students learn by giving them more efficient, relevant — even fun tools to use. Marvell's Moby tablet recognizes that every student learns differently and so it delivers an array of media choices for different learning styles,", told Weili Dai, Marvell's Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor's Consumer and Computing Business Unit during a press conference.

Electronic textbooks

This can be a huge bonus for the children who hate to carry all those heavy books to school (the average weight of a physics textbook is 4.8 pounds in a California high school). Also these e-textbooks can be frequently updated and refreshed – as promised by Marvell. As of now, the newer prints come at more expensive, where one gets the older content as well, and at times has to wait for years to get an updated reprint. Ability to update frequently will keep the students updated, and will cost only the updated section – not the whole book. In fact price of a complete e-book is generally much cheaper than a physical one anyway.

Marvell is one of the largest sponsors of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative, and this Moby Tablet aims to strengthen this tie, and enable a whole new learning experience for the school children.