“Full Flash Internet” – Take that, Apple!
Monday, 22nd March, 2010 | 10 Comments »…obvious much? Marvell has taken charge of what has been called the “education revolution” with their USD $99 tablets. One of the most advertised features is the capability for “full flash internet” – iPad beware! Cheaper prices and basic web functionality are poised to topple your flopping product!
Marvell is calling it the all-in-one “Moby” tablet that is “designed for the world’s students.” It’s not a bad pitch, considering the pricing. Their press release is chocked full of reasons why the Moby tablet will bring significant change to the way students learn:
Printed textbooks are not current.
Ok, I can roll with that. It’s true – studying often means using textbooks over a decade old. It’s one of those one-step-forward-two-step-backward things. You learn something new (one step forward) but that new thing is now outdated (and two back again.) Good going, Marvell (not to be confused with Marvel of Stan Lee fame.)
The rising cost of textbooks.
I can also dig this. Textbooks are stupidly expensive. Ludicrously so. Why don’t the academic press’ of the world just totally subsidise the cost of textbooks, and take that money out of the fairly cushy salaries they pay their professors? Oh wait, the economic model still applies in education. Silly, naive me.
School bags are too heavy for students.
You see the red font? It means my “What??!” alarm is going mental. Have we humans progressed so far down the evolutionary path toward weakness and frailty (screw you opposable thumbs and tools!) that schoolbags have since become a burden our backs cannot shoulder (what?)? It’s statements like these that require a healthy dose of pedantry. Too heavy for what? To carry? To carry – with comfort? Back in my heyday, if I felt my bag was too heavy, I just didn’t take it – the textbooks were out of date anyways. So I suppose Marvell has me there – well played, sir!
But the greatest selling point is the “full flash internet.” Not because of the feature itself (such a feature should be considered bog-standard. It would take a rather severe oversight or case of arrogance to not include it), but because Marvell cheekily fired this strategically targeted marketing slug, riding on the waves of criticism upon release of the iPad.
I like your style, Marvell!
Speaking of changes to study…
…distraction is a dish best served on a small, 1080p compatible, LCD screen.
-HS
![by [K]elbin Lei](http://www.brouhaha.com.hk/images/iotw/13/september-ends-200.jpg)
clash of the titans. let’s see how well this does on the market scene.
Well, I’m not really sure if Marvell is a titan in this thing. But one thing is evident – they are targeting the Apple iPad *intended* market. I say intended because, frankly, I think the iPad is a bit of bollucks and won’t really sell much past the Apple groupies who buy everything and anything under the big Apple logo.
No offense intended to our Apple owning RL, a frequent poster on the Brou-blog.
Funny, I beleive I saw a similar HS comment on a David Duchovny fan site
yes hp, people must own iphones not because it has a top notch interface that has yet to be matched by other smartphones, nor because it has revolutionized mobile internet and portable gaming (by making it accessible to even those not too tech-savvy), it’s SOLELY because people are “groupies” sheeps who buy what the marketers tell them to.
everyone should buy generic products made by small, obscure companies to avoid falling into the “groupie” label. lets all toss our sony TVs and buy a Konka, burn our Nikes and wear China-made “Mikes”. screw apple! only sheeps buy their products, lets buy Marvell and Archos and other awesomely generic products produced in China!
lulz, banter
lulz, nonce
“and other awesomely generic products produced in China!”
From Marvell’s website:
“Founded in 1995, Marvell® Technology Group is based in Santa Clara, California and has more than 5,000 employees worldwide.”
“only sheeps buy their products, lets buy Marvell and Archos and other awesomely generic products produced in China!”
Archos is a French company.
Standard Apple protocol:
Make a shit product with a few innovative idea’s to get the public’s knowledge of a product. (Any publicity is good publicity)
Better said shit product, by apparently “listening to consumers”
Remarket shit product by saying they have fixed the problems.
Place bad battery life on it.
Seal shut to make impossible to upgrade unless you want to pay a fortune.
Steve Jobs owns that very iPhone that is in your pocket all day every day. You have to get permission from him to download anything on it, the apple itunes store is all pre-approved by Jobs.
want to read more? visit : http://www.cracked.com/article_18377_5-reasons-you-should-be-scared-apple.html
well i’ll be looks like we got oursleves a little ol’ brou-brawl here.
not everyone’s going to be able to afford and iphone or an ipad. i think the way that marvell are planning to market this idea ‘to students’ is a darn good thing and might actually work if planned and executed well enough.
People tend to work like sheep anyway. One of the main reasons why Apple does so darn well is because of the aggressive non stop marketing, like your life is incomplete without apple. Im not hating on Apple here, why I myself happen to own several apple products.
Archos is a French company? Damn you got served.