FreedomPop is launching its first Android tablet… and the best thing you can say about it is that the FreedomPop Liberty is cheap.
It’s a $89 tablet with a 7 inch WiFi-only tablet.
Why would a wireless carrier like FreedomPop launch a WiFi-only device? Because you don’t need a 3G or 4G connection to make voice calls or send text messages over the FreedomPop network. The carrier offers Voice over IP services that work at least as well over WiFi as they do over a mobile connection.
FreedomPop already offers a handful of cheap Android smartphones and wireless hotspots that let you connect to mobile broadband on the go. The Liberty tablet is something a bit different… it’s a cheap device designed to get people hooked on the FreedomPop service.
The company’s business plan up until now has involved giving away limited amounts of free data and/or voice and SMS services and selling inexpensive plans to customers who want more.
According to GigaOM, the FreedomPop Liberty tablet is part of the company’s efforts to bring more sub-$100 smartphones to the US market. It’s questionable whether a 7 inch, WiFi-only tablet qualifies as a phone… but you can use it to make calls using FreedomPop’s VoIP apps.
The company plans to launch a $99 version called the Frenzy in November. That version will feature a 4G LTE radio which means you will be able to use it on the go more like a traditional phone. FreedomPop also plans to launch a $89 smartphone with LTE support in the coming months.
The Liberty tablet features the kind of specs you’d expect from a cheap tablet including a 7 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, a microSD card slot, and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It has a 4MP rear camera and 0.3MP front-facing camera, a capacitive touchscreen, and a 2400mAh battery.
Source: Liliputing
Discussion about this post