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Hardware is dead

venturebeat.com

131–140 of 155 posts

Re: Hardware is dead

#131

Looks like great opportunities for folks to start hardware startups. Anybody know how to pick up 2 or 3 of these for prototyping? I'm also assuming you can somehow easily boot Linux on it.

I live nearby Hua Qiang Bei in Shenzhen, if you are serious I could ship some for you. I'm actually seriously considering setting up a Hua Qiang Bei e-commerce: this place is really a gold mine for electronics.

Re: Hardware is dead

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually Intel's ultrabook rebranding was also a clever step to make laptops expensive/more profitable again, while they were in a free spiral fall due to (Taiwan's)Acer's netbooks. That said, hardware will only be dead if US companies give up on producing hardware, and it becomes commodity produced elsewhere, similar to clothing manufactured; only Apple will remain the Prada of hardware.

Add a keyboard(/trackpad?) case to one of these 7" tablets and you pretty much get the original Asus netbook concept, only faster, cheaper, and more versatile.

I have a NATPC009S with a $10 USB keyboard/carrying case and it works great for what it is. Not in any way an iPad (or Google Nexus) competitor of course, but at a fraction of the price it's perfect as a "won't worry if this breaks/gets lost" device thrown in my bag for casual use coupled with emergency ssh access when a server goes down.

Re: Hardware is dead

#133
>Try to take advantage of that price and import it to the US and you'll find the cost is higher.

A college I did graduate work at has a huge auditorium named after a man who made tens of millions of dollars throughout the early 20th century importing stuff from Asia. Which taught me that huge profits can be had by importing exotic junk and ripping off selling it to your fellow citizens for many times what you paid.

Re: Hardware is dead

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoops; thank you. I didn't know that.

Don't give in so quickly - your use was fine, and in keeping with the concept of "X is Dead, Long Live X"

But what the phrase really means is: "X is Dead, Long Live Y" with x being the diseased king, and y the rightful heir and new king.

As wikipedia states [1]:

The phrase is a traditional proclamation made following the accession of a new monarch

And...

"Given the memorable nature of the phrase (owing to epanalepsis), as well as its historic significance, the phrase crops up regularly as a headline for articles, editorials, or advertisements on themes of succession or replacement."

That's why bigdubs was right.

But finally... most probably the successor and new monarch could be something like what Ballmer said to The Seattle Times [2]:

I think when you look forward, our core capability will be software, (but) you'll probably think of us more as a devices-and-services company.

Devices+Services is the new king. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, are all going this route.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_is_dead._Long_live_the...

[2] http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2019168601_m...

Re: Hardware is dead

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't give in so quickly - your use was fine, and in keeping with the concept of "X is Dead, Long Live X"

But what the phrase really means is: "X is Dead, Long Live Y" with x being the diseased king, and y the rightful heir and new king. As wikipedia states [1]: The phrase is a traditional proclamation made following the accession of a new monarch And... "Given the memorable nature of the phrase (owing to epanalepsis), as well as its historic significance, the phrase crops up regularly as a headline for articles, editori…

Yes - that's precisely what the original poster was referring to. "Hardware (The old, legacy, big manufacturer, high margin, centrally built) is dead, Long live Hardware (The new, on-demand built, small manufacturers, lower margin, distributed build).

I'm sure there will be many more generations of hardware as well - indeed, the next big generation will probably be some form of print-at-home, then perhaps biological - who knows.

There will be many iterations - but they all will consist on something physical replacing the last generation.

With that said - I appreciate your meta-point, that the concept of "Selling Hardware Alone" without the devices/services associated it, is going out of vogue with the highly-valued companies here in North America. Point made.

Re: Hardware is dead

#136

A $45 knock off tablet, bought in China miles from the manufacturer doesn't equate to a $45 price tag in the USA. Put a brand name on it (and some quality control), put in the 8 or 16gb the market requires (this tablet was 4gb) and shipping and import fees, and you're easily up to the $200 we're paying today. This is a non-story.

My current tablet is a NATPC M009S (also sold under about dozen other names) 7" Android 4 tablet with a 1.2GHz Allwinner A10 CPU, Mali GPU, 1GB RAM and 16GB internal storage (expandable to 48GB via microSD). It is available for 100,- GBP ($138) on Amazon in the UK. The 8GB model is available for $130. A newer model with 1024x600 screen is available for ca. $160. Forgo HDMI output (and get a slightly cheaper feel case) and it's down to $100.

Not quite $45, but also well below $200, even in the UK. These are highly usable, even the cheapest one mentioned, though of course not comparable to a high end tablet. And they've been eating their way steadily down-market over the last 6 months. Give it another 6-12 months, and they'll likely reach the price point on the low end, and start getting specs "good enough" for most casual users on the "high end" ($150).

Same time last year, the "high end" for these tablets were 256MB or 512MB RAM, 4GB storage or so, Android 2.1 and resistive touch screens, in the $150-$200 range.

Re: Hardware is dead

#137
The manufacturer he failed to identify is most likely Shenzhen Lyric Pioneer (http://www.lyxfsz.com/), which is behind dozens of the All Winner based Android tablets, under a wide variety of brand names.

(One of their more amusing product pages: http://www.lyxfsz.com/en/products_view.htm?id=27 ... )

Re: Hardware is dead

#138
He seems to equate low price to mean there is no profit margin, which isn't right.

There is obviously enough margin to get the device to the USA and sell it in a retail store for $75 (a retail store that demands its own margins)

I'm surprised that seeing it at Fry's didn't change his mind to 'these things are going to sell like crazy'

Re: Hardware is dead

#139

Hardware will die, when web sites or apps will give them for free (as a true commodity). Imagine, you get a nexus tablet when you sign up for Gmail or Google Apps.

I can imagine something like every shopping trolley having a tablet built into the handle that shows the store layout,specials near you, etc.

Would be pretty neat

Re: Hardware is dead

#140
Do keep in mind that $35 USD in China is not directly comparable to prices in the USA. And not just because of the cost of living in the USA.

There are no returns, for example. When you walk out of the store, that's it. If there is any kind of problem, your main option is to just throw it away. There is no tech support either.

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