Marvell Drives Education Revolution with $99 All-in-One 'Moby' Tablet Designed for the World's Students

NEW YORK, March 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL) a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, this week announced a bold new education initiative to deliver a high performance mobile tablet based on its leading silicon platform. For about $99, Marvell's Moby tablet prototype promises to change the way students learn by delivering an always-on, high performance multimedia tablet featuring live, real-time content, 1080p full-HD and 3D media, and full Flash Internet. Marvell's Moby tablet could eliminate the need for students to buy and carry bound textbooks and an array of other tools.  

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Announcing the initiative this week during her keynote speech to the country's leading publishers at the Future of Publishing conference in New York City, Marvell Co-founder Weili Dai said that the Moby tablet is a technology whose time had come.

"Education is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country and our times. I believe the Marvell Moby tablet can ignite a life-long passion for learning in all students everywhere.  Marvell's goal is to fundamentally improve the way students learn by giving them more efficient, relevant — even fun tools to use. Marvell's Moby tablet recognizes that every student learns differently and so it delivers an array of media choices for different learning styles," said Weili Dai, Marvell's Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor's Consumer and Computing Business Unit.  "Marvell can help propel education into the 21st century with an all-in-one device that gives students access to the best live content, information and resources the world has to offer — from books and online sources, in text, video, news, music, data expression or any medium. With Moby tablet, students can conduct primary research, reach out directly to the world's leading subject experts and even collaborate with one another around the globe.  Best of all, the device is highly affordable. I envision Marvell's Moby tablets to benefit all students around the world."

Besides providing a superior learning tool, Marvell's Dai said the Moby tablet addresses three important issues today:

Printed textbooks are not current: Many textbooks are already outdated or obsolete by the time they leave the publishers' loading docks and they are expected to be used for many years.  According to a study by the New York Library Association, the average book in New York public school libraries is between 21 to 25 years old.

• Electronic versions of textbooks on Marvell's Moby tablet can be continuously updated and refreshed.

The rising cost of textbooks: According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the average cost of a single textbook for even secondary school students can range from $60 to $200. And textbook costs are spiraling.  In California, the state auditor reported that school book prices have skyrocketed 30 percent in four years. At the university level, according to the GAO, the average estimated cost of books and supplies for a first-time, full-time college student in 2003-04 was $898 at four-year public institutions.

• Downloadable electronic versions of textbooks for Marvell's Moby tablet could sell for a fraction of the bound versions.

School bags are too heavy for students: Studies conducted around the world show that students today are carrying too much weight — often in excess of 15 percent of their body weight in school books and supplies. One study of Californian high schools showed that the average weight of a physics textbook is 4.8 pounds.  According to the American Academy of Orthopedics, neck and shoulder injuries from overweight backpacks have become among the fastest-growing health concerns for the world's children.

• Actual size and weight vary by configuration, but Marvell's ultra thin and light Moby tablet is expected to hold a full year's worth of books but weigh less than half of one typical textbook.

According to Ms. Dai, Marvell will soon announce a pilot program in partnership with the District of Columbia Public School system (DCPS) where the Company will donate a Moby tablet to every child in an at-risk school as part of a multi-year program in new media and learning.  Details of this program will be announced at a future date.

Marvell has made a long-term commitment to supporting education at all levels and is the largest sponsor of the One Laptop per Child program which is bringing much-needed netbook computers to the developing world.

About Marvell Moby Tablet

Powered by high-performance, highly scalable, and low-power Marvell® ARMADA™ 600 series of application processors, the Moby tablet features gigahertz-class processor speed, 1080p full-HD encode and decode, intelligent power management, power-efficient Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM/GPS connectivity, high performance 3D graphics capability and support for multiple software standards including full Adobe Flash, Android™ and Windows Mobile.  The ultra low power Moby tablet is designed for long-battery life.

About Marvell

Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a world leader in the development of storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions. The company's diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking. As used in this release, the terms "company" and "Marvell" refer to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit http://www.marvell.com.

Marvell and the M logo are registered trademarks of Marvell and/or its affiliates. ARMADA is trademark of Marvell and/or its affiliates. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

SOURCE Marvell