As volume ramps up, "I hope we can make it even lower," Wu said.

On the downside, the Alpha 680 won't ship installed with many local apps, though users can easily buy and download apps from the Android Market. Wu admitted, however, that up to 20% of Android apps don't yet run on the Alpha 680, due to compatibility issues that still need to be ironed out.

The Alpha 680's 2-cell battery will last between two and four hours while surfing the Web using its built-in Wi-Fi or optional 3G antenna, Wu said. That is far less than the eight- to 12-hour battery life that ARM has talked up.

How low can you go?

A longtime engineer in the satellite industry, Wu, a 50-year-old Hong Kong native, co-founded Skytone in 2005 with another partner. Contrary to some reports, Skytone is unrelated to a similarly-named maker of Skype telephone handsets.