Tablet-users who are tired of prying their slates out of their children’s eager hands have a new option as of today – Toys R Us has launched Tabeo, a 7-inch Wi-Fi only tablet loaded with kid-friendly content and games. Parents can pre-order the $150 tablet as of today, but it won’t get here until October 21. The Tabeo is a 1GB Android 4.0 tablet powered by ARM’s Cortex A8 1 GHz chipset. The company says the battery will last through 6-7 hours of video viewing, or up to 10 hours of surfing the Internet.
The introduction of another Wi-Fi only tablet is part of a troubling trend for wireless carriers. AT&T and Verizon Wireless are pushing new pricing plans that encourage users to buy “buckets” of data and connect multiple devices. These plans are targeted at families, the same market Toys R Us is addressing with Tabeo. Since tablets tend to consume more data than smartphones, carriers are hoping the purchase of a family tablet or two will drive more customers into the higher-margin shared data plans. But Wi-Fi only tablets cannot be part of these data plans, and the Tabeo is the latest in a string of these tablets to hit the market. Google’s Nexus 7 is Wi-Fi only, Apple is expected to release a 7-inch Wi-Fi only iPad, and Microsoft is said to be going the same route with its upcoming Surface tablet.
The popularity of Wi-Fi only devices is encouraging mobile operators to focus on software that turns smartphones into Wi-Fi hotspots. “We see expansion of the role of carriers, using the hotspot as proxy to serve a broader range of devices,” says Sunil Marolia, senior director of product management for Smith Micro Software (SMSI). T-Mobile USA recently decided to embed Smith Micro’s mobile hotspot solution into a number of upcoming smartphones. The software enables additional devices to join the carrier’s network by tethering to the smartphone.
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