Oddly enough, one of the biggest players among the initial explosion of Android tablets was Pandigital with their various Pandigital Novel ereader/tablet hybrids.
They were never very good, and some of the models were downright terrible, but back then there weren’t many options for a budget color ereader and tablet. The fact they were hackable aided their success greatly, and Pandigital also benefited by selling them from thousands of retail stores across the US, especially Kohl’s stores where coupons could be used to shave large percentages off the already low price.
Then last year Pandigital followed up the Novel line with a new set of tablets with astronomical names: the Pandigital Planet, Nova, Star, and SuperNova. Once again they weren’t very good, but they were cheap and availability was widespread. Last year they were an okay value for the price, but this year the software is so dated they aren’t worth considering, and a lot more companies have caught up with the low price so that’s no longer an advantage.
Pandigital has since released a couple of variations of the SuperNova, which ironically is their most expensive model, but for some reason they have neglected to release a new line of tablets in over 1 year.
Has Pandigital decided to give up the Android tablet market?
One would think with their initial success in the field they would have released a line of cheap Android 4.0 tablets this year like everyone else. I guess they are going back to focusing on digital photo frames instead. No big loss, really. Just an observation.
Good riddance to them. Coby is filling the known-brand crappy tablet niche just fine.
The cheap tablets are a great way to learn on. I had a cheap $60 7″ tablet I got on eBay that was mostly Chinese App… I loaded Uberoid custom ROM on it; no more Chinese š
Good point, especially when you are experimenting with custom ROMs. I think the Pandigital Novel was the first device I hacked.
Nathan, I have been looking for new, more updated cheap Android tablets for the past week and I haven’t come up with anything. No updates from Idolian or any of the resistive touch brands. I am really anxious to see what new budget models will come forward.
Yeah, what’s the deal. I would have thought there would have been some cheap Jelly Bean tablets starting to crop up. I don’t think I’ve seen a single one yet.
There are lots of cheap Chinese knock-offs through lightinthebox.com and dinodirect.com. Not sure if any have Jellybean loaded yet. Also, Iām squeamish about ordering from a vendor in Hong Kong/Beijing (?) who may not be available if I receive a defective product that needs repairing or replacing. I never seriously considered Pandigital or Velocity Micro Cruz based on your reviews. Not sure how you feel about the Ectaco Jetbook line. I think one model runs on AAA batteries, so should be pretty cheap. It does seem like the big guys (Apple, Amazon, Samsung) have taken too much market share to make competition profitable.
My wife and I have both owned the white Novel e-readers for years. They have never failed us, and we have both been delighted with them. I was especially happy when Pandigital released the upgrade patch. I’ll be sorry to see them go.Now if they’d improve the screen resolution, they’d be a bit more competitive!!!
I just read on Android Community that Pandigital has gone under. They have shut their doors and will not be honoring any warranties.EMAILS went out to former customers today. Assets to be sold off to pay their creditors. That’s it. They are done.
Yep… read it here: http://liliputing.com/2012/11/budget-tablet-maker-pandigital-goes-out-of-business.html
Oh well… no big loss.
It’s funny that I just happened to write this article on a whim about week before Pandigital starts sending out letters saying they’ve gone under. Weird timing.
That’s just plain scary… do you see dead people, too?