Kangaroo is a phablet-sized $99 desktop PC running Windows 10 on Intel Z8500 SOC, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage, expandable via microSD card
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat :
Context & Ripple Effects
InFocus enters the smallest corner of the PC market with the Kangaroo, a phablet-sized Windows 10 desktop built on Intel's Z8500 SoC at a $99 price point that undercuts even budget Android hardware of the era, like Dell's $400 Venue 8 7000 tablet. The bet is that phone-scale components can now carry a full desktop OS.
The category proves durable rather than a one-off: InFocus followed up months later with the pricier Kangaroo Plus, doubling RAM to 4GB and storage to 64GB, while years later Microsoft's ARM-based Windows Dev Kit 2023 and Ayaneo's Retro Mini PC AM01 show miniaturized desktops surviving as a distinct product tier.
First-order effects
- Buyers gain a complete Windows 10 desktop for $99 — a price where previously only Android tablets like the Dell Venue 8 7000 competed — shifting entry-level PC economics toward SoC-based designs.
- Intel gains a new volume channel for its low-power Z8500 mobile silicon outside phones and tablets, with InFocus as the flagship design win for this form factor.
Second-order effects
- Rivals are pushed up the spec ladder to differentiate: InFocus itself answered the original's 2GB/32GB limits within months via the Kangaroo Plus at $169, showing how quickly the floor price buys more memory and storage.
- Tablet makers lose part of their value argument, since the same phone-class internals now come attached to a full desktop OS at half the Venue 8's price.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the mini-PC market stratifies into distinct tiers — sub-$200 commodity sticks, mid-range enthusiast boxes like Ayaneo's $199+ AM01, and premium developer-class machines like Microsoft's $599 Dev Kit — rather than one homogeneous category.
- Desktop hardware becomes decoupled from desk-scale chassis, making the display and peripherals the expensive parts of a setup and commoditizing the compute unit itself.
The trend: Desktop computing is fragmenting into pocket-sized Windows devices whose price tiers stretch from $99 SoC sticks to $599 ARM developer kits, with each generation buying more RAM and storage per dollar.