low cost

Following the introduction of its new line of Galaxy Pro tablets during CES, today Samsung introduced a new 7-inch tablet on the opposite end of the lineup with the new entry-level Galaxy Tab3 Lite.

The two-years ago specs are certainly nothing to brag about, but depending on how close Samsung prices the tablet to $100, it won’t look all that bad next to its competition in the low-cost tablet category. Unfortunately the company hasn’t announced pricing, but looking at the specs below, we think it could be its most affordable Galaxy Tab yet. That’s especially considering the current 7-inch Galaxy Tab 3 has been going for as low as $140 lately. It did confirm the tablet will be available globally in both black and white, but there’s no word on exact availability or markets.

Full specs for the Galaxy Tab3 Lite below:
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According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Google is now in the middle of a new project that will see the company develop wireless networks in emerging countries including sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Google plans on teaming up with local companies to develop the wireless networks, which are said to use airwaves normally reserved for TV, but will first have to get government approvals:

Some of those efforts revolve around using certain airwaves reserved for TV broadcasts to create wireless networks, but only if government regulators allowed it, these people said. Google has long been involved in public trials to prove the technology—which operates at lower frequencies than some cell networks, allowing signals to be more easily transmitted through buildings and other obstacles and across longer distances—can work. And it has begun talking to regulators in countries such as South Africa and Kenya about changing current rules to allow such networks to be built en masse.

The report mentions that Google is also “building an ecosystem of new microprocessors and low-cost smartphones powered by its Android mobile operating system to connect to the wireless networks,” although it didn’t offer up any other specific information on the devices.

It also points out a Google X project that takes advantage of “special balloons or blimps, known as high-altitude platforms, to transmit signals to an area of hundreds of square miles,” but it’s unclear whether or not the two projects are connected.
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The Digital Reader recently discovered benchmarks posted to the GLBenchmarks website for an unannounced Asus tablet that might be for Google’s much rumored $99 Nexus tablet. According to the specs listed in the benchmark data, the Asus ME172V will sport a 1,024-by-600-resolution display, Android 4.1.1, a 400MHz Mali GPU, and a 1GHz CPU. There’s a possibility this is just a low-cost Asus tablet, and not a Nexus. With the $159 Kindle Fire sporting a display with the same resolution, a $99 price point might be a bit of a stretch for this upcoming Asus tab—whether it’s a Nexus or not.

In recent months Digitimes, a publication with a spotty track record for predicting product launches, has reported several times that suppliers have confirmed a low-cost, $99 Nexus tablet is in the works. In October, NPD DisplaySearch analyst Richard Shim also claimed that Google is working on a $99 tablet, adding that it could go into production as soon as December.

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