14 DAY TRIAL // While the iPad has started shipping, competing products still haven't found their way to stores, even though multiple companies, especially HP, are bent on making their own forays into the nascent market. What some end-users may have forgotten, however, is that the Indian company Notion Ink also has a slate on the way and has already showcased it at CES 2010. Unfortunately, while HP published videos of its tablet, and even leaked the specs, little new information emerged on the Adam. Recently, however, the company decided to give a little update on the device's development status.
Back in February, Notion Ink revealed the overall performance and usability features that the final Tegra 2-based product was expected to possess, including an ARM Cortex-A9 processor, NVIDIA graphics (for 1,080p video playback), three USB ports, a 3-megapixel autofocus webcam, 3G, Bluetooth and WiFi. The slate will also boast an HDMI output, a proximity sensor and an accelerometer. Nevertheless, as consumers probably know, the most important features will be the Pixel Qi display, support for Flash playback and multitasking.
Until recently, the Adam tablet was known to be slated for launch in June. Notion Ink's latest update, however, seems to cast some doubt on whether or not this time frame will be followed. While the device is supposedly on track, there seem to be some issues that have yet to be resolved, in relation to Flash playback, which is quite ironic considering that the slate can handle 1,080p videos. In addition, Rohan Shravan, Notion ink's founder, stressed his company's intention to subsidize the slate, which means that the launch of the product will be dependent on when and where the telecoms want to start selling it.
“As soon as the stable Flash is there, there will be two months of testing and we will hit the stores. Also to remember here is the marketing strategies of our partners aka Telecom Firms,” Mr. Shravan says. “It depends a lot on them when they want to hit the markets. We have seen different strategies for different players. Some want to give you Adam for Thanksgiving, some for summer holidays, some when you start a new year at your schools. So, it depends.”
As it stands, there seems to be no fixed release date for the Pixel Qi display-equipped tablet.