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Published in Mobiles

Qualcomm to make low-cost 3G internet device

by on13 November 2008

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For the emerging markets

Qualcomm has announced that it's going to launch a low-cost Internet device codenamed Kayak that offers 3G data connectivity for emerging markets. At the moment there aren't too many specifics with regard to the hardware, but the press release contains some interesting tidbits.

First of all, Qualcomm has teamed up with Inventec in Taiwan for the manufacturing of the reference design, with other companies welcome to do their own designs in the future. Qualcomm is touting it as a perfect fit between a desktop PC and an Internet-capable wireless devices, whatever that means.

It will, of course, use a 3G data solution from Qualcomm, be it CDMA2000 or WCDMA (market dependant) and Opera has been tasked with creating a Web 2.0 browser for the platform with the ability to run Web 2.0 productivity applications.

Kayak seems to be a very open spec, with support for either a built-in display, or the use of an external one, be it a TV or a computer monitor. The reference design will also offer support for a standard keyboard and mouse, although we presume devices with a built-in display will be more like a notebook or possibly a tablet PC.

Interestingly, Qualcomm has also specified support for music playback and even the option to use the Kayak as a 3D gaming console, although there are no specifics as to how this would actually work.

Qualcomm is set to start testing the first devices in Q1'09 in Southeast Asia, although we'd expect it to take some time after that before we'll actually see production devices. There was no mention of cost of the platform in the press release.

More details here
Last modified on 14 November 2008
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