Small-sized "netbooks" are the latest gotta-have-it for gadget freaks and frequent travelers. Based on Intel's Atom processor and touted as a low-power, high-performance machine, the netbooks are supposed to be the missing link between a smartphone and a full-sized laptop, allowing users a smaller, less-expensive option to a MacBook, Thinkpad, or Dell laptop.
The market for such devices is huge, claimed Intel CEO Paul S. Otellini in an interview with the Wall Street Journal:
"... the next billion consumers [to] the Internet economy [will use] devices that merge the capabilities of smart phones and small laptops."
However, the netbook "frenzy" comes with a caution from Intel: Despite describing the Atom chip as "high performance," a netbook is not the same as a low-cost notebook. Netbooks are designed to be the dumb terminals of the Internet era, not something like a standard notebook, which owners can use to edit home videos or their latest photo shoots.
There's another issue to consider with netbooks: Not all Web apps are the same. Which ones use few enough resources to run well on a netbook? Simple Web applications with mostly server-side processing are a safe bet, but casual gaming like Electronic Arts' Pogo.com may not work as well, considering that much of the processing is done client-side.
But a billion consumers is nothing to sneeze at. If the netbook starts gaining market share from its bigger, badder notebook cousins, it may very well drive Web app optimization toward a leaner, less client-processor-intensive application architecture.
Image: Lenovo IdeaPad S10
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Comments
I believe that while the netbooks may be underpowered for running modern windows OSes, they will quite likely be very capable under linux. The S10 from Lenovo has 512M soldered to the motherboard and a single SO DIMM slot that can hold a 2 Gig memory module. With 2.5 Gig these machines would make very usable linux workstations and / or school computers.
I can't think of a single highly used web app that could be considered "demanding."
As Intel tried to implement with the Celeron: the innovator's dilemma is that if you don't cannibalise your own market, your competitors will.
"rich user experience"? They sound like Microsoft, and I'm afraid about as believable. No-one will care until stuff becomes famous for not working on these things. What practical activities are they thinking of that can't be done on a netbook? Be specific.
http://notnews.today.com
Well said....Its a FUD campaign because I think some of the industry is really worried about conventional notebook sales drop, as well as a known software company, whose already troubled OS doesn't benefit at all of the netbook craze.
Contrary what the media and sellers wants us to think about netbooks, there's nothing terrible crippled in the user experience, build quality or system response, they're just small little laptops whose prices are more according to their bill of materials. We were used to the notion that smaller ment more expensive (hello Sony...) but this devices proved that notebook prices were artificially inflated
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