I had a demo of the Mobinnova Beam at CES last week and I have to say, it was one of the coolest UI demos I saw all week. Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform will do a good job of enabling a dynamic UI but the question always remains; when you’ve finished messing around with the 3D UI, what then? Customers have no idea what an ARM-based netbook can do and much like it is in the smartphone world will be forced to rely on advertising, branding, word of mouth and online reviews which is probably why the Beam will switch to Android when it comes to AT&T as a product. Without that comfort-blanket, the Beam would be an unknown quantity.
Netbooknews.de is relaying the CES announcement from Mobinnova which gives some more details about the Mobinnova Beam and confirmation that the Beam is coming to AT&T
Specifications:
- Screen: 8.9” 1024×600 Non-touch
- RAM: 512M
- Storage: 8-64GB
- Comms: Wifi b/g, BT2.1, HSDPA
- USB 2.0 x 2
- Mic In, Line out
- Expansion port for VGA and ethernet adaptor
- SDHC card slot
- HDMI out
- SIM card slot
- OS: Android
But will this be the Android you have come to love? will it be Google Android with marketplace, contacts syncing and all the rest of the Google goodness or will it be a vanilla Android build without a marketplace? If it’s a true Google Android, it means that Google are now approving non-voice devices, a great step forward for the ARM-based tablet and smartbook market.
Next question: Price?
Mobinnova Beam press release.(PDF)
‘Smartbook’ in Germany is property of Smartbook A.G. They sell netbooks.
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if it were a touch screen & convertible tablet … esp. 10″ screen, I’d be a LOT more interested. Especially with a PixelQi display.