I spotted a familiar name while scanning the FCC website for new products the other day. Everex was one of the early players in the netbook space with a Linux-powered mini notebook called the Everex Cloudbook.
The company filed for liquidation in 2008 and pretty much left the US market by 2009.
But now it looks like Everex is back… and this time they’ve got a mediocre Android tablet.
According to an FCC listing, the new tablet features a 9 inch screen, a 1.3 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage, a microSD card slot, mini HDMI port, and 802.11n WiFi. It has front and rear cameras and a mono speaker on the back.
The tablet features Android 4.2 Jelly Bean software and images from the user manual suggest it’s a Google Play certified device with access to the Play Store, Gmail, Google Play Music, and other Google apps.
All told, it sounds like a tablet which isn’t particularly special, but which should be able to run most Android apps… for a few hours. It has a 2800mAh battery that’s good for about 4 hours.
New tablets with similar specs show up at the FCC all the time. The only reason I felt the need to point this one out is because if it goes on sale in the US, it could mark the return of Everex to the portable gadget space… which I guess could make a few people who have been following the space nostalgic.
On the other hand, I get the sense that some folks won’t exactly be excited to welcome Everex back.
I don’t know why these guys bother with low end tablet when they have to compete with like 20 Chinese companies on that market.
I guess if they can get a deal with a retailer like Walmart, then it would still be worth their while.
It’s quite possible that the Everex name has gone out of copyright
so it was available for anyone to use, or that some mainland Chinese company
bought the rights to the name. A mainstream company would already
have an established brand name, even if not in this market, and
so wouldn’t need the Everex brand.
The brand Everex actually goes further back. The original Everex
was a maker of IBM compatible PCs, and if memory serves, even used
to advertise in BYTE magazine, the one that featured Jerry Pournelle
and Chaos Manor. Competitor to AST Research, Compaq, CompuAdd.
512mb ram 🙁