‘Always-on’ is going to be a seriously important weapon in the fight for the netbook market for ARM-based ‘smart’ devices. I’m 100% sure that the first manufacturer that brings this seamless experience to customers in a fast, well-designed, well-priced device will cause waves in the netbook market. Customers that switch to the ‘always-on’ model aren’t going to go back to anything less.
Not only is always-on going to allow mail and social network polling and instant-use scenarios, it’s also going to enable a whole new range of applications. From a simple alarm clock to video and voice calling, these applications just won’t be possible on Intel-based netbooks with the current platform.
I spent a long time with the Airlife 100 today. It’s a 100% ARM (Snapdragon 1Ghz) ‘smart’ device being offered by Telefonica in Spain. Pricing and availability is not known at the moment but we’re estimating that this one will be free on a 24-month contract.
The 10-minute video below shows the user interface, applications and a look round the design of the device.
It’s interesting … but resistive screen in an upright form that won’t swing around to be a tablet? And also therefore the screen will not go to portrait? It’d be interesting if it came out here in the US for $399.00 w/o a contract and, like the iPad, I could do Pay As You Go for monthly 3G. Anything other than that would be a FAIL for me personally. And, I still want to see the rumored Archos 7 because that can’t do DiVX/XViD AVI. No crap conversions to MP4/3GP.
Whoops. Typo snuck in there. “can’t” = CAN do AVI for the Archos 7.
Looks really nice. Does it have apps for voice and video chat?
Very nice! But without the Google Experience apps and Market would be a major Con from my point of view..