The blogosphere is alive with the sound of LG entering the netbook market. According to various reports, LG will contract with MSI to manufacture the LG X110, which will be based on the Intel atom and have an 8.9 inch screen, 2GB memory, and an 120GB hard drive.
One wonders if this will simply be a rebranding of the fabled 8.9″ version of the MSI Wind, which MSI vaguely mentioned during this past Computex.
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This post was written by admin on July 23, 2008
In an online interview at VIAarena, Tim Brown, International Marketing Manager for Mobile Products for VIA, discusses the current and future for UMPCs and netbooks. Some of his points:
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This post was written by admin on July 22, 2008
In an apparent about-face to comments made last week by new CEO Dirk Meyer, AMD has announced that for now, it is not going to enter the netbook market.
“We are not saying it’s not an important segment and we’re not saying it’s not a growing segment,” said Nigel Dessau, AMD’s Senior VP/Chief Marketing Officer. “What we are saying is that we are a smaller company and we have to focus on what we do well at this point. We are watching that segment rather than playing in it, but as it matures we’ll see where it goes. At this moment, we are going to focus on what we do best.”
According to the full article in eWeek, some analysts believe AMD will stay out of the netbook market for now as it looks to recover from seven consecutive quarters of losses and refocus on the higher-volume server and PC desktop markets.
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This post was written by admin on July 22, 2008
During their latest conference call, newly annointed CEO of AMD Dirk Meyer declared that his company would be a part of the netbook market.
(But) slightly smaller form factor notebooks and inexpensive notebooks. That is a market segment that we’re interested in…It’s actually a segment that we’re starting to offer products to our customers in support of now,” Meyer said. “We actually haven’t talked in public about that, but I expect we’ll be talking about that roadmap when we get together in November at our analyst conference.”
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This post was written by admin on July 18, 2008
According to an article in Techworld, Acer is in talks with carriers in the UK and Taiwan to provide its Acer Aspire One netbook with 3G data plan service. The carriers mentioned are Vodafone, Orange, and T-Mobile in the UK, and Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Mobile in .tw.
As widely mentioned before, the Aspire One comes with an empty internal space that can be used by WiMax or 3G cards. In the UK and Taiwan, 3G networks are in place, and Acer could easily add a card that supports HSPDA or HSUPA technology. The Aspire One’s relatively low price could then be subsidized by the carriers in exchange for a data plan/contract.
The article also mentions that other netbook manufactorers such as Asus and ECS are in similar talks, claiming that ECS has already inked a wireless deal in Europe to distribute its G10IL netbook.
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This post was written by admin on July 15, 2008
Fujitsu/Siemens is joining the netbook market with an as-yet unnamed model for the German market, pictured on the left next to a full-sized Fujitsu laptop:
No specs yet, but according to a Fujitsu/Siemens executive, the price will be €400 (approximately USD $640).
Read the full story (translated)
Read the full story (original German version)
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This post was written by admin on July 15, 2008
A somewhat interesting article about which nameless company is the one actually manufacturing these netbooks. According to a Digitimes article:
Currently, Quanta Computer manufactures Acer’s Aspire one, Compal Electronics is doing Dell’s E series products, Inventec is making Hewlett-Packard’s (HP’s) Mini-Note PC, and Pegatron Technology makes Asustek’s Eee PCs.
The article also mentions that Wistron is the only major manufacturer not currently signed to make netbooks, although it claims it is actively involved in negotiations to do so.
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This post was written by admin on July 11, 2008
That lucky man known as The Acer Guy got a 24-hour hands-on with the Linpus Linux version of the Acer Aspire One, and he shares his fortune with some quick videos:
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This post was written by admin on June 27, 2008
This is more of a UMPC than a Netbook, but still interesting: Panasonic today announced the latest addition to their ruggedized Toughbook line. According to the company, the Panasonic Toughbook U1 exceeds military specifications- as one example, it’s rated for 4-foot drops as opposed to the military spec which only calls for a 3-foot drop rating. Other specs:
One neat touch- instead of a single 3- or 6- cell battery, the U1 has two 2-cell batteries (each rated for 3-4 hours) that are hot-swappable. So you could keep swapping in extra batteries without having to turn it off.
All this durability and flexibility doesn’t come cheap, however. At a list price of $2199, it wil probably be the most expensive UMPC out there.
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This post was written by admin on June 25, 2008
For what it’s worth, Buy.com is now offering the MSI Wind for pre-order with free shipping, in all three colors. No estimate for shipping date, just “be one of the first to receive this product when it arrives!” An additional $10 off if you use Google Checkout for the first time (see link at top of the product page).
NOTE: This link is being provided for information only, and should not be considered an endorsement of Buy.com.
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This post was written by admin on June 23, 2008