Adamnotionink_logoToday we talk to Rohan Shravan, Founder and CEO of Notion Ink – the company behind the highly anticipated tablet ‘Adam’.  Rohan talks about Adam, IPS display, manufacturing in India and of course, pricing of the Adam. Full interview ahead – Read on!

Ideabing: How is Adam different from other Tegra chipset based tablets?

Rohan: Adam is certainly not a differentiator in terms of hardware, there are ten other tablets using the same base hardware configuration. It’s about the UI and user experience that we will be delivering with the hardware. But Adam will be the only tablet with an auto focus camera built in. No other Tegra chipset based tablet has an auto focus camera.


Ideabing: IPS display technology vs. PixelQi?

Rohan: PixelQi is definitely better. It’s got the highest resolution on an LCD today, the best clarity, much lower power consumption. IPS cannot be compared to PixelQi. The two technologies just cannot be compared.


Ideabing: Why choose Android for Adam?

Rohan: It’s not just Android, Android was just the base. We have developed significantly on the base. It’s going to be a whole new UI and a whole new user experience on the Adam. The software will be a differentiator.


Ideabing: US Launch date?

Rohan: You will have to wait for the press release for the launch date.


Ideabing: Adam’s price at launch?

Rohan: The press release should have that when we launch Adam.


Ideabing: Any ball park figures?

Rohan: Nope, but certainly below the iPad’s price.


Ideabing: So you will be offering the 3G + Wifi option with Adam?

Rohan: Yes, we will be offering the 3G + Wifi option.


Ideabing: Where will Adam be manufactured?

Rohan: Taiwan.


Ideabing: Has it been easy creating a product in India?

Rohan: No, creating a product in India has been difficult. Notion Ink just happens to be an Indian company by registration, we have research and development going on in USA and Taiwan. But from the software perspective, yes, India has been a good place to be. For hardware products to be manufactured in India, infrastructure is still an issue unless the government ramps up infrastructure development drastically.


Ideabing: How many years before India can compete with China in manufacturing?

Rohan: At least 10 years. Manufacturing costs are going up in China. If the Indian Government builds enough infrastructure, manufacturing will come in automatically.

Ideabing: How is the success of Notion Ink changing things for Indian entrepreneurs? Are they able to get funding more easily now?

Rohan: Definitely, things have changed. But, if you are talking from the product development point of view VC’s are still not comfortable with product companies in India. Unless you definitely know what product you are developing, money does not come in. MS and Samsung have a great software resource base in India but there is no hardware support to the extent companies like ours need. Scalability is still a problem. Companies are talking about manufacturing e-book readers in India, so it’s changing slowly.

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