Intel Readies Low-Cost StudyBook Tablet

The latest reported decision on Intel's part may or may not be a response to NVIDIA's promise that Tegra-based tablets would become truly cheap by the time summer comes around.

For those who haven't learned yet, NVIDIA said that slates based on the Tegra 3 platform would reach an average price of $199 (150 Euro) by the second half of 2012.

Intel's StudyBook project may be the Santa Clara, California-based company's response to this.

According to Digitimes, the chip giant chose that name for a tablet that would aim for emerging markets.

In other words, it will be a low-cost slate powered by the Medfield processor and loaded with two operating systems.

The full specifications aren't known, but the size of 10 inches suggests this is more of an educational product than an ultraportable entertainment one.

Then again, the fact that Intel will follow the same strategy it used for its Classmate PCs is enough to suggest this all on its own.

Nevertheless, with all the praise that chipzilla has been showering the Medfield, we assume that the video and casual gaming capabilities will be at least decent as well.

China and Brazil are the first countries that will get the StudyBook, as soon as Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) starts manufacturing and sending it out.

The first batch is bound to reach customers in the second half of the year.

The price isn't as encouraging as the one above though: $299, or 224.25 Euro, give or take.

Fortunately, that's the retail tag, not the one associated with the education procurement market.

In other words, although Intel will try to sell the item through normal retail channels, students could get them cheaper, depending on where they attend classes and if the institution(s) are among the ones to sign contracts with the product maker.

Speaking of which, Intel's Classmate PC project is about five years-old, so the Santa Clara enterprise already has deals with emerging countries.