Notion Ink's Tablet Adamthe iPad Killer

To design devices which will enable people to realize their dreams, and I believe in scale and volumes and bringing the exact differentiations out. Convergence excites me and I will constantly be working towards the same. Adam is my brainchild and its just one of the first few devices I want to realize,Rohan Shravan, founding director and CEO, Notion Ink.

This in a way sums up the passion behind Indias very own tablet PC, Adam, developed by Notion Ink, and touted as the iPad killer. Over the last 1 year, enough hype has been built on this Android based tablet PC that made headlines globally. The Android 2.3 based tablet globally launched in mid December 2010, has got rave reviews in the just concluded mother of all tech showsthe Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011 at Las Vegas. As per the companys website, whatever pre-orders it opened have been sold, so new buyers need to wait for a while until the company takes fresh bookings. However, there remains an element of secrecy on total booking numbers and their manufacturing details. According to sources of the total pre-order bookings60% was from US, 20% from Europe, and 10% from India.

What is Adam?

Adam is a platform, not a product. Adam is already second generation whereas all others are first generation. For instance even from hardware and software point of view, Adam distinguishes itself. In design, it is the only one which does not look like an iPad copy, and most importantly Adam has the support of a big family of people who are not only supporting it, but also helping Adam become mature, says Rohan Shravan, founding director and CEO, Notion Ink, in an email interview with Dataquest.

At the heart of the Adam tablet is the powerful 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 250 chip, that is dual core. In terms of software, it runs on Android 2.3 also know as Gingerbread. The interface in Adam is called Eden and is mostly separate from the Android, facilitating upgrades to the next version of Android. With Google already announcing Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)an OS made for tablets, and hence Adam has to depend on its app store called Genesis until Google opens up the Android app market place for Honeycomb based tablets. Says Shravan, The Adam tablet is indeed one-of-its-kind in the market, the biggest differentiator is its ability to multitask. You are no longer stuck with just 1 app running on your tablet.

Yet another first of its kind innovation is the incorporation of Pixel Qi in the high-end models. This implies that the user gets amazingly sharp and crisp display even outdoors and extended battery life, with the company claiming a battery life of more than 12 plus hours. Adam comes in normal LCD version too, giving a choice to the buyers.

The Potential

Without doubt, Adam is an amazing tablet. The leading technology analysts from leading technology media portals have given thumbs up for its performance and the capabilities of this device. But despite that since the launch of Adams prototype in CES 2010 last year, Notion Ink has not shared much information about the tablet until its launch last month. Being a startup and fighting behemoths like Apple (iPad) and Samsung (Galaxy Tab) is indeed an uphill task. But many feel that being overly secretive, the company has adopted a risky strategy of keeping the buyers guessing and clearly too much guessing leads to unwarranted criticism. Cleary, Adam is a case of superior product and lackluster marketing so far. The only hype from a marketing perspective the company has so far created is the sold out playcard in their website. But many marketers feel that it is not enough. Adam promoters need to come out in the open and address a broad range of questions relating to the product.

Post CES 2011with the product being seen globallyit has put to rest that Adam is no longer a prototype. But what is not yet clear is that when will the new bookings start, and the ability of the company to ramp up production and cash in on the initial enthusiasm before the competition catches up.

Google has announced its dedicated tablet OSAndroid 3.0 (Honeycomb)that will be launched soon and Adam is based on Android 2.3, so what plans does Notion Ink has once Android 3.0 hits the market? Says Shravan, At CES, we learnt about Honeycomb. At Notion Ink, we were aware of this project and could guess what modules were being improved. As such there are no official (as per our record and few online sources) and no hardware restrictions, and when Honeycomb is available, we will send updates as soon as possible.

With Adam finally out in the market, the bunch of young IIT alumni who have floated Notion Ink, have proved that a small startup can indeed generate huge interest and compete with the likes of iPad. Many feel that huge initial responses, both critical and positive will only help the company as well as the product to mature. Now that the initial hype has died down and the buyers are looking at the touch and feel of the product, Notion Ink has a laborious task at hand. All the pre-orders need to be delivered, and it needs to put in place a proactive supply chain system that can ensure that the products are shipped as promised.

From an India perspective, if this product lives up to its expectations it can alter the mobile PC landscape. It is rightly priced, base version starts at $375 and goes up to $550 for the Pixel Qi, Wi-Fi, and 3G. With the product hitting the market, Notion Ink can no longer rely on the word-of-mouth publicity and blogs to popularize Adam. It needs to project Adam as a mass market product. Being a startup with not so deep pockets, the postlaunch phase would indeed be challenging to the company. And one only hopes that Notion Ink puts in place a practical yet effective marketing strategy that can make it an iPad killer in real sense. Notwithstanding its mass success, Notion Ink and Rohan Shravan need to be commended for coming out with such a tablet form factor, and significantly elevating its power performance paradigm and taking it to new heights.

Shrikanth G
shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in