When TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington put out a call for the creation of a sub-$200 net tablet that took the netbook idea, threw out the keyboard, and added a little Kindle flavor for good measure, I was excited by the idea, but humbled by the slim chance that this thing had to actually make it to market.
Well, six months and two prototypes later, there’s apparently a working model of what this device might become:
Using a Via Nano processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of flash memory, a touchscreen for onscreen keyboarding and Ubuntu, the unit boots, connects, and surfs just like you would want it to.
Unfortunately, it looks like the sub-$200 price point may have been too ambitious for the first go-round, but with a realistic target of $299 now set, it looks like this might actually see the light of day.
They did however add that:
The real question for us is whether this project has legs and should go forward towards production units, which is a very big step from a working prototype. That would require spinning the company off from the blog and building a team around Louis. It’s a decision we haven’t made yet.
Despite the challenges that this device still faces, I hope that someone picks it up and runs with it, because I wouldn’t mind kicking back on the couch with the Internet at my fingertips for a hair under $300.
[TechCrunch - Tablet Update: Prototype B]
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