It's official today: the Kno tablet is no more.
The maker of the educational tablet said today that it received a huge new funding round, and that it is changing strategic direction. With $20 million of the $30 million infusion coming from Intel Capital, as a part of the agreement Kno is going to make educational software and will not produce its own hardware, according to a Kno spokesperson.
The news of the funding round was first reported by All Things D last night.
You may remember the Kno, originally pitched as a dual-screen tablet for education. The company eventually decided that a single-screen tablet should also be an option for students. It announced pricing for tablets last fall at $899 and $599, respectively, and even took some orders.
The touch-screen tablet market is getting crowded, so it's not a huge surprise the company made this choice. Even more challenging is pricing: it's been tough for the field to beat the iPad, which starts at $499, though Android tablets are getting closer.
Intel and Kno will work together on all hardware design efforts from now on, according to the company.
This story was corrected at 3:20 p.m. to note that Intel and Kno will be jointly handling future hardware design, and future Kno software will be available for many devices, not just Intel.