The Apple iPad might be the hottest thing out there in the small world of Internet Tablets currently. However, there seems to be a group of dedicated Indians who would be looking to steal the thunder from the giants by introducing their own tablet. The Notion Ink’s Adam is a tablet that has been the result of collaboration of six IITians and an MBA graduate. The Notion Ink’s Adam had been showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show 2010 and will be seen again at the upcoming Mobile World Congress.
Delayed Again and Again:
The folks at Notion Ink ran into a little friction with their pre-luanch event and were having trouble actually materializing in reality. Notion Ink promised a Q3 November release date for the Android tablet, but was forced to delay shipment. However, according to company CEO Rohan Shravan, it seems the delay was not due to any technical problems with the tablet itself, but rather due to some funding problem. After the funding issue was sorted out, the Adam tablet still had to receive CE and FCC approval in order to be sold in Europe and the US respectively, further delaying the project’s release.
But now, all issues sorted out the tablet is shipping to people who had pre-ordered. Founder Rohan Shravan has posted a few photos showing what looks like a fair number of real products getting ready to roll out the doors.
Features and Specs
Well, we’ve already mentioned some of the factors that make the Adam very impressive on paper and in the videos we’ve seen. There’s the (optional) high quality transflective 10.1 inch Pixel Qi screen on the one hand, the Tegra 250 processor and two A9 cores on the other, and of course the 3.2MP camera that actually swivels. Then there’s also 1GB of RAM, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and USB port. In short, the NI Adam is looking very high-end in every aspect, much like the next-gen Motorola Xoom and other tablets.
In terms of OS, the Notion Ink Adam tablet is running a customized version of both Android 2.2 and 2.3 with its own unique Eden interface on top of it. The development team has gone on to assure customers that once Honeycomb becomes officially available, they’ll integrate it with the Adam extremely quickly. Definitely more quickly than competitors, they promise.
Limitations:
The only chink in the armor would be the lack of a comprehensive application store on the lines of the Apple App Store, which the iPad user will have access to. Notion Ink folks too are fully aware that the Adam would need an enthusiastic developer community that needs to back the Adam with quality apps. Which is why they are planning a developer challenge that will have $1 million prize money for the winner. Now, that is bound to attract some attention!
With all the passion and hard work we wish Notion Ink all the luck in the world for at least trying. Getting stuck here and there and still trying their best to bring Adam to reality must have been a real tough journey. If this Android tablet lives up to half its promise, it might be one of the most exciting things to hit the tablet space.