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Manufacturers are keeping their fingers crossed on the Indian markets. Will the standalone internet ‘tablet’ spark interest among Indians?
In the recent past, Apple’s groundbreaking technological innovation, the iPod, had sent the world into frenzy. Of late, the computer giant is all set to storm the international markets with its latest technological breakthrough the ‘Apple Tablet’ computer. The internet forums are already abuzz at the prospect of an iPod Maxi or say, iPod Mini.
But, First things First. Apple’s incendiary innovation is not something new. The concept of a web-surfing tablet with additional features was already doing rounds in the international markets. In fact, Intel has been trying to promote the concept of Mobile Internet Device (MID) for sometime now. However, Nokia stole the march over Intel by becoming the first company to make a decent running internet tablet- N800 and N810 Linux-operated services.
But the bitter truth being, Nokia never thought of serving the Indian markets when it comes to its MIDS. Even Intel has been pushing MIDS into other countries, but not in India. The obvious reason being, the wireless broadband speeds here.
The two of India’s known wireless broadband service providers, Tata Indicom and Reliance NetConnect have failed to gain major access in the Indian market, given the EVDO technology embedded in them. It is reported that in India only few devices support the EVDO technology, which these two operators offer.
And to add fuel to the fire, both Tata Indicom and Reliance NetConnect have not-so-good pricing plans with metered data services, where you can have access to certain amount of data free and then it becomes chargeable. This causes massive bills. So watching something on YouTube or downloading music on these gadgets is totally out of question.
Keeping these unsupportive planning’s aside, MIDs will be predictably launched in India. With touch-technology being the new-age mantra, it is anticipated that a whole lot of Taiwanese and Chinese MIDs will also flood the Indian markets, sounding a death-knell for the high-end net book.
Just think of using an iPod touch as an internet tablet in a Wi-Fi settings and I am sure the experience will be more than overwhelming. A tablet iPod having attributes of a computer and other additional features may become the must-have-gadget for 2010. But will the government do something about the Broadband Wireless Access auction.
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