Monday, December 27, 2010

Kno -- The Linux-based Educational Tablet

Kno, a California-based startup has announced that its Linux-based single-screen and dual-screen educational tablets for students will be shipping this week. This tablet is not competing with iPads or Galaxy Tabs, but has its own niche market -- students. The major use of this 35.8-cm (14-inch) Linux tablet will be to read textbooks, take notes and browse the Web. Kno is a multi-tasking browser that is capable of HD video playback. The Linux OS also enables it to support an HTML5 Web browser.


The single screen model has two variants of 16GB and 32GB costing $599 and $699, respectively. The dual-screen 16GB model costs $899 while the 32GB variant would cost you a whooping $999. It is needless to say that for a device with no apps and other 'fun' features, it costs a lot and would have a tough time doing business.

However, Osman Rashid, CEO and co-founder of Kno, Inc. argues that Know provides what others don't -- easy navigation through e-textbooks with large page sizes and hundreds of pages, and taking random notes alongside the text itself.

But are these enough to draw the crowd? A feature like this can be achieved by an app itself. Why would users buy Kno when it provides no apps? Rashid agrees to this but answers that there are students and parents who prefer a device which is void of features which distract users. He adds that purchase from these customers would be enough to make Kno a significant company.

Rashid also has a justifying answer for the high price of Kno and says that shifting to Kno is economic over spending on textbooks. He adds that the company has estimated that a student would be saving $1000 after converting to such digital textbooks.

Kno has not partnered with any publication to get these e-books for their format. The company has developed an automated process which converts e-books to the format supported by Kno. Rashid adds that thousands of titles have been converted already.

Even after so many assuring answers, I doubt if Kno will have many takers. What happens to this Linux-based educational tablet will be revealed with time.

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