back to article Analyst offers cut-price fondleslab recipe

SSA Digital is a little-known Chinese company that is very good at two things. One is getting spam through the filters here at Vulture South, which is the only reason we know about the second thing at which it excels: making seven inch tablet computers so cheaply it is prepared to sell them for just $US40 apiece in lots of 10, …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Even cheaper

    Remove the screen, and plug it into the HDMI port of a TV or monitor. Add WiFi/Bluetooth for internet, roll up keyboard/mouse pad connection, and you have something that you can fit in a pocket. It has already been done for Android, so it should be possible to make a version that runs Windows. (I'm not sure why you would want to do that, but that's a whole different topic.)

    1. N13L5
      Holmes

      Bearer of false gifts for every last man, woman and child.

      The interest is there, to get every last person set up with an electronic leash and locator.

      Infect people's minds with our retarded 'unfettered markets' religion. Interest bearing fiat money is the new God, mainly allowing a criminal global banking cartel to get carried by everyone else.

      Crappy but super-cheap new tablets shall be the ultimate spreader of corporate advertising and misinformation.

      Behind every colorful message is hidden: "obey" remember that movie? its real...

  2. Neoc

    "...ask where all the Netbooks have gone."

    Digital Heaven, with all the dead calculators. Surely.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "...ask where all the Netbooks have gone."

      singing with my Granddaddy Dragon 32 , Spectrum , IBM 360 , all in digital harmony.

    2. plrndl

      Re: "...ask where all the Netbooks have gone."

      Not forgetting the typewriters, Walkmans (Walkmen?) portable CD players etc, etc.

  3. Azzy

    I don't see that working out well...

    Amazon and Google are already selling tablets at cost...

    It's very hard to make a profit undercutting someone who is selling stuff at cost. So they need to cut costs enough to both undercut Google/Amazon AND make a profit. I don't see how this is going to happen without terminally compromising the user experience. All this will do is waste development money and further damage the reputations of the companies involved, and possibly the reputation of tablet computing in general.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    sub $100 tablets

    I saw some Black Friday specials for 7" Android tablets for $70 a few weeks back. I have no idea of the quality, but I'm sure they were pretty terrible using all the compromises listed in the article.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: sub $100 tablets

      I saw some Black Friday specials for 7" Android tablets for $70 a few weeks back. I have no idea of the quality, but I'm sure they were pretty terrible using all the compromises listed in the article.

      Terrible for whom? 2 Billion people live on less than $1 a day.

    2. Charles 9

      Re: sub $100 tablets

      I wouldn't say they're terrible, but compared to a good 1GHz+/Dual-core high-res tablet the differences are pretty stark. Most of the ones I've seen run on Android 2.x, meaning they're limited to about 828x480 resolution. At 7 inches, that drop in resolution shows. They also have cheap single-core CPUs and clunky graphics which means even with the less-demanding Android 2.x it visibly stutters and chugs. Then there's the fact many of these aren't officially supported by Google, meaning they don't include the Google Play market and instead rely on alternative markets like Amazon or whatever's handy.

      PS. I have a friend who got one of these secondhand (but dirt cheap) while I've seen demo models of the like. They all feel the same. My advice is to avoid the cheap stuff. Save up a bit and get a Android 3.x+ tablet with more respectable specs. Once you get out of cheapo territory, the tablet becomes a lot better value for the money.

      1. Bassey

        Re: sub $100 tablets

        Not sure on your "Most of the ones I've seen" there Charles. There are many, many tens of these things out there and it is pretty rare to see Gingerbread on them these days. You are really only looking at a £50 Resistive-screen model. The vast majority are running ICS (4.0.4) at around £60-80 and come with 1.2GHz Single core CPUs and a single Mali 400 GPU with 512MB of RAM. Spend £80-100 and you can easily get Jelly Bean, Dual core CPU, quad-core GPU, 1GB of RAM and a high-res IPS display (1280x800) and some even have aluminium, rather than plastic, cases.

        I'm not saying the feel, build quality or UX will be up there with a Nexus 7 but for around £90 you certainly can get a stonkingly good tablet WITH USB Host, HDMI and a MicroSD Slot. There seems to be a lot of crap being spread about the cheapo chinese tablets at the moment. Sure, 18 months ago they were churning out barely functional toys but they have seriously upped their game and it doesn't take much shopping around to save yourself a lot of money compared to a Nexus or Kindle HD.

    3. Efros

      Re: sub $100 tablets

      Not necessarily terrible, I saw one the other day that was had for $65 from ebay. One of those anonymous white box Chinese 7" tablets, This one had 512MB memory with a 4GB flash running Ice Cream Sandwich. Played with it for about 15 minutes and was very impressed. Full access to Google apps, and play. Only negative I saw was that it was reluctant to give up physical ownership of the microSD that I plugged in to transfer a couple of apps, required the judicious use of a pair of tweezers. If I was comfortable with the 7" screen I would have bought one, but I prefer 10" (oooer missus!).

      1. Lamont Cranston

        Re: sub $100 tablets

        I really like the sound of these cheapo tablets, and there's always someone on forums like this extolling the virtues of the one they've acquired. However, whenever I look into buying one, it's invariably an unknown quantity - reliable review sites seem to stick to the established brands.

        It's a shame, really, as I'd quite like a cheap one for the kids (so I don't burst into tears when they inevitably smash it!), but the thought of buying one and then finding out that, say, Angry Birds Star Wars* won't run, doesn't exactly fill me with enthusiasm.

        *don't judge me, it's as good a benchmark app as any

  5. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Small Cheap Computer^W Tablet

    OEMs won't make small cheap computers because they would cut into sales of expensive computers. By all means tell them that expensive computers are not selling and watch them stuff their fingers in their ears and shout la-la-la. Why does this analyst think it will be any different with tablets? Surface 2 is on the way, and I will be shocked if it is only twice the price of an Android.

    1. Mikel
      Happy

      Re: Small Cheap Computer^W Tablet

      Since Surface 2 will be around $900 and I can already get 10" Android tablets for $150, it just doesn't seem likely. Sure it's better hardware, but the software is lame. And the hardware is not 6x better to earn the 6x price. Almost all the value is in the software after all, and these Android tabs have access to over 600,000 apps.

      We have finally found the road to that "impossible" $100 laptop.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Rear View Mirror

    For example, see the Wonder Media 8850 SoC.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about

    I take a shit and sell it to you for a tenner, shipping included? (Not sure if there's VAT on sales of human faeces, will check with my accountant)

    As interesting as these crap tablets..

    1. Stuart Archer

      Re: How about

      I enjoy how logical and well though out this reply is...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: How about

        You should check out the comment sections on cnn.com. They make this guy look like a Nobel laureate.

  8. Mikel
    Pint

    There are already sub-$100 tablets

    Seriously I bought two of them. They are all over the place. There are a lot of models to choose from at that price, but I got the "SuperSonic Matrix SC-72MID". 7" capacitive touchscreen, dual cam, 1.4Ghz processor, Android 4.0 with Google Play. USB, USB OTG cable included, uSDHC. Flash Player. At 4GB the onboard storage is a little light - only 1.7GB to spare out of the box, though this version of Android lets you move most apps to a cheap SD card. 8 or 16GB really should be the minimum though. Touch could be more responsive. Viewing angles and color are ok but not great. Web browsing is fine. $89 each delivered. It could be a little snappier overall.

    But for $89? Come on! That's ridiculous already. The cooler thing is that next year is going to be even better. The pace of progress in these mobile devices is simply astounding.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: There are already sub-$100 tablets

      Most of the sub-$100 tablets I've seen don't compare to what you describe. Most of them are Froyo or Gingerbread tablets and severely limited. Now, I simply may not have seen a lot of them yet, but I would call your find rather an exception at this point.

      1. fishman

        Re: There are already sub-$100 tablets

        Charles -

        Those tablets you have seen were last years models. I've seen quite a few models offered online from places like newegg that are running ICS - there are more than a dozen models listed at newegg at under $100.00.

        1. Charles 9

          Re: There are already sub-$100 tablets

          They may be last year to you, but they're very much THIS year here. Anything with ICS on it from what I've seen doesn't retail for less than $170, and I've looked all over town at K-Marts, Best Buys, Radio Shacks, etc (Walmart doesn't deal with that type--they're strictly iPads and Kindles). I'm just speaking from firsthand experience looking for a decent bargain tablet. Even on Black Friday, I checked out the tablet deals stores were having. Without exception, if they were cheap, they were 2.x.

          1. Charles 9

            Re: There are already sub-$100 tablets

            ADDENDUM: Checking on Newegg, I see those $80 ICS tablets mentioned earlier. Most of them seem to come from AGPTEK, and it's interesting there are so many listings for them. They typically only put out ONE listing for a given model. So I'll grant that ICS tablets are out there for under $100 online and some of them are even decently specced (I note ones in the $90 range being dual-core). But this has LITERALLY been the first time I've seen tablets of that spec at that price.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: There are already sub-$100 tablets

              " the first time I've seen tablets of that spec at that price."

              Have you been relying on sites like El Reg for your product info? Bad move at the bottom end of the market.

              If so, you'll likely not have read about things like the Sumvision Cyclone Astro. Sumvision are Chinese, been around a while, doing media players and drive enclosures and stuff like that. Most folks won't know them, but unlike a lot of the low end tablets, they're not completely unheard of either (does that actually matter at this price point?).

              The Cyclone Astro+ was a Cortex A8 1.2GHz, 1GB RAM, 16GB flash, Android ICS, uSD socket, HDMI out (built-in display is 'only' 1024x700). More info at:

              http://www.sum-vision.co.uk/productinfo/cyclonetablet/cyclonetablet_astro.asp

              Ebuyer price this summer: £80. Lots of happy customers according to the reviews on ebuyer and elsewhere.

              Not currently available, but lots of similar-sounding ones are available from other suppliers.

          2. Mikel
            Thumb Up

            Walmart doesn't deal with that type...

            Funny... that's where I got my two at the top of this thread. Did you try their website? You know they have site to store, and free shipping on items over $50 right? Though they had 88 under $100 options at the time, it seems they've now sold out of all except this one: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hot-Holiday-Tablet-Bundle-with-Your-Choice-7-Tablet-and-Accessory-Kit-Value-Bundle/22254826

            And that doesn't look so different from the ones I got. It seems that these are the hot thing for under the tree this year. Bump up to $150 like the fine article does, and you can have one up to 10" with similar characteristics. Not much time left before the holiday though. It looks like all of these are selling out fast.

  9. thondwe

    Got a couple

    I've got a couple of Chinese £60 tablets for my kids for Xmas. Running ICS - though the two aren't identical builds! Performance is just adequate for the kids to play a few games (Angry Birds!) on - though my wife borrowed one to take on an office trip - OK for a bit of browsing and email too. Better value for the kids specific tablets which cost more, have a tiny screen, and charge £15 for each pack of games! Just don't run too many apps at once!

    Not as good as my iPad obviously, but a fraction of the price! These are based on an A13 chipset - a cut down version of the A10. Hopefuly, a few better ROMS will appear for them soon, but the issue is the hardware is inconsistent - not all have the same touchscreens, etc. Cheap enough to take a punt on (for me at least)

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about £44.50

    Not a great spec, but cheap!

    http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mobiles/mobile-phones/VERSUS_TOUCHPAD_7?&portal=AWIN&promo=118046

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How about £44.50

      Clearly this is remaindered stock.

      The obvious conclusion: anyone with £90 to spend on a tablet has already got more than half way towards a Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HD, so will pay the extra for one of those rather than waste it on tat.

      Or maybe Carphone Warehouse don't have enough cheapskate punters walking through their doors?

      1. Mark .

        Re: How about £44.50

        I don't want cheap tat, i want a 7" tablet with micro sd and Google play access. Honest question - what choices are there?

        1. Bassey

          Re: How about £44.50

          Try this;

          http://www.eupson.com/pipo-u1-with-android-41-jelly-bean-tablet-rockchip-rk3066-16ghz-1gb16gb-ips-1280x800-tablet-pc_p710.html?zenid=gcksg108063q0f2u0fsh79e1r2

          £94 for a 7" IPS 1280X800 Display, 1GB RAM, 16GB Storage, HDMI, USB, MicroSD, Dual Core CPU and Quad Core Graphics in an Alu Case. I've done a fair bit or searching and it seems to be the best around at the moment but things change pretty quickly in the tablet market at the moment.

          And I have no connection to the above. Just been searching for a Christmas present!

  11. BadwolfBracken

    No Shit Sherlock

    "Analyst" suggests way to undercut Apple with cheap tat?

    Astounding

    I'm shocked

  12. Mark .

    Maybe ppl would be buying netbooks if the specs weren't stuck at 2007 1024x600 1gb ram, with no fall in price either. I'd gladly take something with a keyboard that i don't have to hold rather than an oversized phone, but everyone's already got netbooks, and there's no reason to upgrade. The same thing will be true of tablets in a few years, if they do the same thing.

    As for shop shelf space, it would be nice if so called pc shops didn't devote half the place to apple laptops - shop space isn't simply about market share, it's who buys the most advertising space in the shop, or gives them the bigger margin. You won't see the low cost tablets in most shops either.

    The nexus 7 is made by Asus, a pc company, the nexus 10 by Samsung, so the tablet vs pc company argument doesn't make sense.

    1. Fatman

      RE: so the tablet vs pc company argument doesn't make sense.

      BUT, you forget that Asus and Samsung make these as "contract manufacturers" for Google.

      Do you really think that they really care about the tablet vs PC debate in this context?

      BTW, you do know that 'sammy' makes laptops, don't you? (http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/laptops)

    2. Lamont Cranston

      @ Mark

      Quite. Netbooks (and low-end laptops) seem to be overpriced, and utterly stagnant, which is a shame, as they're quite popular in my house (no one wants to do anything work-like on a tablet).

  13. James Hughes 1

    Kindle Fire

    Just got a non-HD one for £99 on their £30 off deal. Seems pretty good, albeit a bit chunky. Angry Birds works, so recipient of said Xmas prezzie will be more than happy.

    Prices will continue to fall, but how far? There is a limit which is cost of components and assembly, and its difficult to see where the cost will drop on these $65 devices.

    1. fishman

      Re: Kindle Fire

      I don't think you will see the bottom prices falling too much more, but the specs of the components will improve - higher screen resolutions, faster multicore processors, more memory and storage.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    I was in a chain pharmacy (druggist? apothecary? drug store?) recently and noticed a 7" Android 4 tablet for $99, in a shrinkwrapped box on a shelf unit with those all-in-one video game emulator systems and some alarm clocks. It was 8-whatever-x-480, but I think it had a reasonable CPU / mem / touch screen type. It was branded 'Craig', which seems to be stamped on a lot of REEEALLY low end clone stuff - cheap home theater in a box things, boomboxes, small TVs, etc. In the time I looked I couldn't divine who really made it.

    If it's $99 at retail in a chain drug store they've got to be available more cheaply elsewhere.

    There are also some rather interesting kid-targeted Android 4 tablets out there - more expensive at $160 or so, but how else can you get a tablet with bright yellow grippy round corners?

    In other news, I've been trying for a long time to find a way to use the phrase "We put the 'harm' in 'pharmacy'" but still have yet to justify it. Also, 'She puts the 'bitch' in 'obituary'" - but you have to find a fairly odius dead person to pull that off. Where was I?

  15. goldcd
    FAIL

    We don't need more/cheaper tablets.

    I've always paid for top-end phones and laptops, but didn't think I had a place in my life for a tablet.

    Start of this year I bought a "£100 android tablet". God I hated that thing. It wasn't 'bad' just every bit of the experience was mildly viler that I wanted. I certainly wasn't going to cough for a 'premium' £500 tablet - but I just lost the will to live when I tried to use that tablet.

    Then I got a Nexus7 as a final punt. It's pretty-near perfect - and cheap. Yes there's the Nexus10, S-Pads and the iPad if you want to spend a noticeable chunk of money - but I just can't imagine anybody so price sensitive they'd sacrifice any N7 features to save a few quid.

    The gap for 'ultra-low-price' items surely isn't in the world of tablet, it's in the items most people don't know they need yet that's currently filled by dedicated appliances, that would benefit from a bit of underlying Android (or your SSO, IP enabled, OS of choice).

    I want the DAB clock radio - with an OS - I can listen to spotify or my Google Reader subscribed Podcasts - I don't want a dock for my phone, I want to not have to put my phone into my clock radio.

    I want my STB to maybe flash up a message when I get an email or a txt on my phone and allow me to use my phone as an output screen.

    I want a magnetic e-ink screen on my fridge with my calendar for the day, that only needs charging twice a year.

    I want a DECT phone, that relays unanswered calls to my house to my mobile over IP (or allowed me to connect from my mobile to my home phone etc).

    I guess my point would be that all the underlying gubbins we currently have in tablets is getting ridiculously cheap - but just making every cheaper tablets is quite frankly boring and unnecessary.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tablets will take over the world

    Billy boy must be laughing his cotton socks off. (I remember his presentations about the mobile devices of the future)

    The Nexus 7 is the dogs wotsits of the tablet world, I got one for the eldest in July (because the Regirati recommended it) and the endless fighting over it by his siblings (and the serious pre-teenage hump I get when I force him to let them have a go for 1/2 an hour) is something to behold.

    Second in line will get one for Xmas (his birthday is not long after so it is a combination, I'm not made of money)

    Third in line will get a cheap clone, 4 day shipping from HK, 1/3rd the price....yes it ain't no N7 but it is still impressive. (sd slot, HDMI out etc.)

    If I can get Miracast (also Reg commenter suggestion) working then armed with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse I can walk into the living room, drop the N7 into a charging station and have an Android PC running on the 40inch tele from the coffee table. Time to go, just pick it up and take my PC with me.

    Only thing missing from the N7 is 3G but I bet there is a dongle for that.

  17. Robredz
    Linux

    Bought a 7" from Amazon dual core Rocckchips 3066, 1.4Ghz quad core Mali 400 GPU 1 Gb Ram 8 Gb onboard, £64 delivered 3 quid for a case with built in usb keyboard and there you go, none too shabby, a netbook the size of a Filofax, remember them? it has hdmi out usb out so can be connected to the TV like a Raspberry Pi, and stream HD video. OK the resollution is only 840 x 480 or thereabouts, the touchscreen is responsive, but this one will do until a 10" model with quad core comes in around the $100 mark. Stuff olike Temple Run, Angry birds fly sic, on it. dead Trigger flies also, DJpro , and Caustic work fine with low latency; so all in all the Chinese have upped the game significantly.

    Would I buty another yes, people who have seen it reckon it is OK, and wanted to know where i got it. So there we go, why buy into the wallwed garden?

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