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Hardware is dead

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Re: Hardware is dead

#151

Post by seanmcdirmid »

dholowiski wrote: post #62

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.

And this is a non-post. First, hardware is typically more expensive here in China (components make up much of the cost, which are imported into export-only zones, VAT is high), so if they are selling them for $45 in China retail, I'd expect them to eventually be the same price or cheaper in the states. Second, its not a knock off tablet if it doesn't claim to be something it isn't (like an iPad). The branding is very white label.

Re: Hardware is dead

#152

Post by sreyaNotfilc »

noonespecial wrote: post #68
pyre wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how much time / hardware hacking was necessary to implement your own thermostat or garage door controller. The garage door controller seems like the simpler of the two to reverse engineer, but a thermostat has a number of inputs to reverse engineer unless there is a documented/standard api of sorts. Also, where are you sourcing cheap touch screens 'from the pile?'

Tablets : http://www.dealextreme.com/c/tablets-1409 Thermostats. Most houses have "3 wire" or "5 wire" layouts with standard colors. http://home.howstuffworks.com/home-thermostat3.htm . Its pretty easy to call for heat or cool. Get a temperature sensor for your beaglebone from sparkfun: https://www.sparkfun.com/search/results?term=temperature+sen... I replied further down on how the garage door worked out.

This is so sweet! I gotta try this soon! Thanks for the links!

Re: Hardware is dead

#153

Post by [deleted] »

7952 wrote: post #109
betterth wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android 2.3, never going to get updated, crappy resolution, slow single core processor... Honestly, it's going to suck compared to a Nexus 7. Remember, Android 2.3 IS NOT a tablet operating system, the first of which was 3.0, so it's basically a 7" non-cellular Android phone.

And windows 95 was a terrible desktop operating system. But it still sold. The people who are going to buy this won't care.

[deleted]

Re: Hardware is dead

#154

Post by Spooky23 »

michaelt wrote: post #124
freshhawk wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"... then we are entering a golden age of hardware ... It can also herald an era of 'mom and pop' hardware companies." Exactly! I never understand bloggers and pundits who analyze these things from the perspective of the stockholders or owners of the large players instead of the consumers/small players. Why the hell would you cheer about the high margins charged on the products you are paying for? Is marketing gettin…

Why the hell would you cheer about the high margins charged on the products you are paying for? I don't cheer high margins, but in some industries cheap medium-low quality products crowd more expensive higher quality products out of the market. Consider inkjet printers; there are many cheap products on the market, but the consensus opinion among techies seems to be that there's no suppler with a good product. It woul…

Products are low-margin. Solutions are high margin.

There isn't much money in selling commodity tablets. But there is a huge amount of money out there in solutions built around tablets.

Re: Hardware is dead

#155

Post by betterth »

7952 wrote: post #109
betterth wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android 2.3, never going to get updated, crappy resolution, slow single core processor... Honestly, it's going to suck compared to a Nexus 7. Remember, Android 2.3 IS NOT a tablet operating system, the first of which was 3.0, so it's basically a 7" non-cellular Android phone.

And windows 95 was a terrible desktop operating system. But it still sold. The people who are going to buy this won't care.

It wasn't crappy at the time. For those of us used to Windows 3.x it was amazing.

This is more akin to selling Windows 95 on machines after Windows 98SE was already out. At that point, yes, 95 was considered terrible.

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