Notion Ink’s Adam tablet sells out in less than a week

What’s on the sixth floor of Subramanya Arcade, Bannerghatta Road in Bangalore?

Two men taking the lift to the seventh floor looked surprised.

“There’s nothing there, no office on that floor,” said one.

There’s no signboard to announce this is the office of the start-up that’s taking on the Apple iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, no less.

Open a smoky glass door and eerie silence greets.

Suddenly a guard jumps out of the shadows.

“Is this the Notion Ink office?”

A flurry of nods.

Aha! Finally!

“Who do you want to meet?”

“Rohan Shravan.”

The guard nods again, ready to escort yours truly in.

The secrecy ambience is par for the course for Notion Ink, a little-known company that’s creating a mild storm in the tablet space with its just-launched Adam.

And some launch, it has been.

Notion Ink started taking pre-orders for the first lot last Friday, which are sold out, Shravan said.

The gizmo, with a 10.1 inch display, is quite nifty in terms of dimensions: it weighs just 725 grams, is 1.4 cm thick, 26.9 cm long and 19.1 cm wide.

“We will put the next lot for sale in a couple of weeks,” the young entrepreneur said, but did not share the numbers.

Nor is it clear where the product is manufactured.

Shravan said most of the orders were from US and Europe. “It’s ratio of 60:40 between US (40%) and Europe (60%).”

Scuttlebutt has it that the company is funded by Mukesh Ambani, but Shravan did not confirm or deny.

“We will open all communications within a few weeks,” he said.
Secrecy around a new technology product is not unusual — but companies usually generate a lot of hype closer to launch.

Not so Notion Ink — barring the viral that Shravan’s blogs (www.notionink.com) generated.

Interestingly, the company will sell Adam only on the internet.
It is available in two variants. One with a backlit LCD and Wifi is priced at $375.33, while a 3G-enabled version costs $425.

There is also an additional shipping charge of $50 from India to anywhere in the US and Europe.

Delivery will take 6-8 weeks so consumers can lay their hands on the thingamajig only in late Jan.

Vishal Tripathi, principal research analyst with Gartner Research, said it is not surprising that the initial orders for the Adam are from US and Europe.

“These two markets are mature and technology adoption is higher compared to emerging market. Another reason is that people in these markets are used to buying online. In India and other markets, we still want to feel the product before placing an order,” he said.