Last time we caught up with Bob Morris, Director of Mobile Computing at ARM, we spoke at length about consumer tablets and smartbooks, the software stack and what would attract a customer. I also asked him how significant the ‘smart’ device category was. At that time he said it was ‘extremely important.’ I’m guessing that after just 3 months, the category has even more weight within ARM to the point where it’s on the critical path.

In this interview, Bob talks to Stacey Higginbotham of GigaOM around the 7” Android-based prototype from Compal and poses the question, “What makes [tablets] hot and useful?” Price-points are mentioned along with 1080p video, 3G and battery life over 10 hours. He also talk about ‘single pin number’ payments through another ARM technology that provides ‘ATM level security.’

I just can’t help thinking back to Origami when I see that tablet.

Source

Via

We saw a lot of tablets at CES and it was Nvidia who seemed to be pushing the category harder than anyone else. Apart from the Tegra2 display cabinet showing a whole series of devices (video) there were a few other interesting devices out on display. The video below shows a slim 10” Compal tablet that looks almost production ready in terms of casing but as with all the other devices there was no information about who would produce this device and when it would be available. As far was we know, this one, along with all the other prototypes we saw, might never come to the market.

The difference between CES and reality can be wide!