Mobile Internet devices allow users to surf the Web, access email and play media in a device that’s the size of a phone. With the new Nvidia Tegra chip, the cost of these devices will be as low as $99 dollars for the first time, including an HD quality display.

Nvidia is set to demo a MID powered by the new Tegra line of chips at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company is already developing models for its partners, the first of which should be available this summer.

These devices will be capable of playing video in 720p or 1080p HD formats. Nvidia improved the efficiency of the high quality graphics by including them on the devices’ ARM processor.

This means that the next generation MID will also have dramatically improved battery life. The devices are purported to supply days of video playback, Wi-Fi and 3G network access on a single charge.

There’s no word yet on who will be launching these devices, or on what mobile networks. Nvidia hints that they could be made to run either Windows CE or the newer Android mobile operating system. Nvidia has also created its own rich user interface for the devices.

With a price as low as $99, it will be interesting to see if MIDs start catching on as devices that solely support Wi-Fi and that don’t carry a monthly 3G subscriptions. For that price, the devices could become viable competitors to the iPod Touch.

There are already a number of games that could run on the device using the Open KODE gaming standard. These standards allow 3D multimedia content to play on a number of different hardware platforms.

The only place where these devices are sorely lacking is a touch screen. While high quality video playback is an excellent addition to mobile devices, touch interfaces are quickly becoming the standard for mobile devices.

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Entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 12:08 pm under Media players, Technology, Wi-Fi.

Read more entries by Dave Jeyes.
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