Design Article
ARM posits Cortex core for $100 tablet
Rick Merritt
2/12/2013 12:31 PM EST
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Smartphones and tablets that cost $100 will be the next big wave in mobile clients, according to an executive for ARM, the company that provides most of the processor technology for the systems.
Cost is the big barrier to entry to the majority of people who still do not own smartphones, said Dipesh Patel, general manager of ARM’s physical IP division, in a talk at the Common Platform Technology Forum last week. “We need to build smartphones that are more affordable,” he told an audience of more than a thousand chip designers and makers.
Only five of the seven billion people in the world today have cellphones and only one billion are smartphones, Patel said. Even in the U.S. only 48 per cent of cellphone subscribers use smartphones.
Scanning the globe, the percentage of cellphone users with smartphones declines rapidly. In China 24 percent of cellular subscribers use smartphones, in Brazil 20 percent do, in Russia and Indonesia only nine percent and in India just four percent.
Click on image to enlarge.
He also discussed a $100 tablet based on a quad core processor, seven-inch display, 512 MB RAM, 16G flash and 802.11n—essentially the spec rolled out in a project by the Indian government. After his talk, Patel told EE Times that some OEMs are building such low-cost smartphones and tablets today, in some cases using Cortex A5 processors, far below the A8 designs considered low end today.
Patel’s observations on low end smartphones echoed comments some market watchers have been making over the last two years. China’s rising chip makers such as Spreadtrum have been aggressively pursuing the space, typically with A8-based SoCs.
The sector poses risks, too. Nokia tried to differentiate itself with a focus on feature phones for developing markets as the smartphone trend was rising, a move that some argue caused it to miss the opportunity to become a major smartphone supplier.
Patel was quick to note the low-end is just one of several lucrative smartphone segments. He highlighted three areas in the foil below.
Click on image to enlarge.
Related stories:
Smartphone growth lies in low-end phones
Integrated chips fuel smartphone growth
Cost is the big barrier to entry to the majority of people who still do not own smartphones, said Dipesh Patel, general manager of ARM’s physical IP division, in a talk at the Common Platform Technology Forum last week. “We need to build smartphones that are more affordable,” he told an audience of more than a thousand chip designers and makers.
Only five of the seven billion people in the world today have cellphones and only one billion are smartphones, Patel said. Even in the U.S. only 48 per cent of cellphone subscribers use smartphones.
Scanning the globe, the percentage of cellphone users with smartphones declines rapidly. In China 24 percent of cellular subscribers use smartphones, in Brazil 20 percent do, in Russia and Indonesia only nine percent and in India just four percent.
Click on image to enlarge.
He also discussed a $100 tablet based on a quad core processor, seven-inch display, 512 MB RAM, 16G flash and 802.11n—essentially the spec rolled out in a project by the Indian government. After his talk, Patel told EE Times that some OEMs are building such low-cost smartphones and tablets today, in some cases using Cortex A5 processors, far below the A8 designs considered low end today.
Patel’s observations on low end smartphones echoed comments some market watchers have been making over the last two years. China’s rising chip makers such as Spreadtrum have been aggressively pursuing the space, typically with A8-based SoCs.
The sector poses risks, too. Nokia tried to differentiate itself with a focus on feature phones for developing markets as the smartphone trend was rising, a move that some argue caused it to miss the opportunity to become a major smartphone supplier.
Patel was quick to note the low-end is just one of several lucrative smartphone segments. He highlighted three areas in the foil below.
Click on image to enlarge.
Related stories:
Smartphone growth lies in low-end phones
Integrated chips fuel smartphone growth
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chanj
2/12/2013 3:59 PM EST
Low cost smartphone/ tablet is definitely the next big step. Keeping the performance while reducing the price of a multi-core ARM is no doubt one of the major vehicles. Cost of LCD, that of high capacity battery and all other additional chips that differentiate products will likely need to go down to make a $100 smartphone/ tablet a reality.
On the other hands, does the news mean smartphone maker can no longer enjoy the profit margin? I guess it is just a matter of time.
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Ed.Sutter
2/12/2013 4:46 PM EST
Seems to me that the cost barrier is the monthly charge, not the phone itself. I still haven't stepped up to a smartphone simply because I don't wanna add another $30-40 per month to my already ridiculously high verizon bill.
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ChipConnoisseur
2/12/2013 5:35 PM EST
Only in US. You can get even 5 euro a month contracts in Europe with like 3000 minutes and 100 MB of data or such. I imagine in India and Africa they have even $2/month contracts.
As you can imagine they can't afford to do that much with data there, though, but they can use Wi-Fi if they have it. So the smartphone price is still the bottleneck. $100 quad-core Cortex A7 phones with Jelly Bean should be more than good enough for most people, performance wise. And it should also be possible to make them in 2013, depending on what other components they decide to use, too, and I'm sure it's possible to go even lower than that. There are already $50 Android smartphones in Africa.
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Big Paul
2/12/2013 6:39 PM EST
Chip has it right. Carriers are a huge drag on wireless innovation in the US. They suck up money with minimal competition and drag their feet on modernizing infrastructure. I guess they find it more profitable to invest in lobbying for the status quo than moving forward.
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cnxsoft
2/12/2013 10:46 PM EST
Yes you're right. I pay about $7 a year in mobile phone bills in Thailand. For this price I obviously don't use data plan, and connect via Wi-Fi instead.
I'm always surprised to read $100 tablets and smartphones are the future, since in 2012 you could get a $60 7" android tablet with Cortex A8 or Cortex A9 processor, and for $75 you could get Android smartphones based on some of the Mediatek processors.
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eewiz
2/13/2013 12:16 AM EST
Always wondered why US phone contracts are so expensive. I mean I can get a 24 month contract with monthly 4GB LTE data + 300 min voice calls +~1000SMS for 45US$ in singapore along with a subsidized(around 300-400$ less) phone. IIRC similar contracts are 70-80$ in the US
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Ed.Sutter
2/13/2013 7:48 AM EST
Wow! Didn't realize it was that inexpensive outside the US. Thanks.
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jackOfManyTrades
2/14/2013 3:26 AM EST
It's not just developing countries that are cheaper than the US, it seems. In the UK my 100 minutes, 100 text, unlimited data contract costs me £15 a month (~$22) and came with a free smartphone (a Samsung Galaxy Apollo - a mid end Android job).
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alzie
2/13/2013 2:42 PM EST
Its not the cost of the HW.
Heck, i still dont have a cell phone, dumb or smart.
600+$ / yr is ridiculous!
I refuse to have two phones, plus
when I m visiting people, its rude to be interrupted any way.
Yes, I m a luddite.
I dont do cable TV either.
Broadcast is where its at.
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charlie babcock
2/12/2013 6:20 PM EST
$100 tablets and smart phones can't be that far off and would have a big impact on the nature of society in what remain some of the disconnected parts of the world. There would be big opportunities for rapid advancement in education, health care and economies. Also, political agitation. disruption and upheaval. Charlie Babcock, InformationWeek
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rick.merritt
2/12/2013 9:00 PM EST
Once upon a time we bought $3,000 tricked out PCs from Dell. Now its a sub-$500 deal at Fry's.
Smartphones will go the same way, as will their profit margins.
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help.fulguy
2/12/2013 10:03 PM EST
Rick, You should join ARM. You might as well cut the middle man (UBM) and get the $$$ straight from ARM.
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omnix
2/13/2013 7:22 AM EST
I've been listening for years about laptops for $100 (for Africa, Asia... etc...), then for similarly cheap net-books, then phones, and now for some time the same fairy-tales for tablets.
During last 15 years I've probably heard minimum 100 times someone announced that cheap ___put_here_whatever_popular_computing_device__ is knocking at the door.
And it never happened.
It won't happen this time either.
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y_sasaki
2/13/2013 1:23 PM EST
3-4 years ago, one of my colleague actually bought $100 PC for interest. We were surprised how useless it was!
Some people make things cheap will open up a huge market opportunity, but the product must have practical usefulness. Q-core cortexA7 + 1080p video support sounds reasonable, but if it comes with cheap low-resolution LCD plus terrible precision touch screen, the product will be much more useless than purpose-built feature phone.
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vandamme
2/13/2013 4:07 PM EST
It's just a question of when, not if. People are buying $200 Chromebooks.
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joyhaa
2/14/2013 12:41 PM EST
aren't the sub-$100 tablets flooding the market already?
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A. P. Richelieu
2/16/2013 11:56 AM EST
0,5 GB/month dataplan is $80/year in Sweden, but can be had on eBay for $20...
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