Posted 11/14/08 at 07:15:52 PM by Andy Salisbury

At long last, the Dell Mini 12 is available to order for those of us that inhabit North America.

While Dell won’t be shipping out the $549 netbook until December, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get your order in now if you want to be among the first to get one. Packing a 1.33GHz Atom processor, 1GB of memory and a 40GB hard drive, the Mini is looking to be a solid productivity machine, all factors taken into consideration.

The Mini 12 can upgrade to a 1.6GHz Atom processor and an 80GB hard drive, but you’ll end up spending a notably steep $758 for it.

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mobile, dell, hardware, netbook, Mini 12

Posted 11/14/08 at 11:22:46 AM by Paul Lilly

While Intel's Atom chip has been finding its way into nearly every netbook release, AMD has been playing it conservative by taking a wait-and-see approach. At this point, it's not hard to see that netbooks are here to stay, and AMD finally looks ready to capatilize on one of the hottest tech fads of the year.

According to AMD's updated processor roadmap, the chip maker is primed to target mini-notebooks and netbooks with a pair of new processors called Caspian and Conesus. Both are 45nm parts and built using the same architecture as the company's just-released Shanghai chip and both will be dual-core parts with an integrated DDR2 memory controller.

Caspian, which will find its way into ultraportables, will come with 2MB of cache compared to 1MB on Conesus. The latter will also utilize a BGA package so that it can fit into the limited space netbooks afford. Even still, AMD chief executive Dirk Meyer contends that netbooks aren't going to be the company's focus.

"First order, we're ignoring the netbook phenomenon," Meyer said, "concentrating on PC notebooks above that form factor.

Huh? Randy Allen, the senior VP of AMD's Computation Solutions Group, clarified Meyer's curious statement by saying AMD will cede part of the netbook market to Intel, particularly Mobile Internet Devices. "We won't be going to the bottom where Atom is going," Allen said. Allen further stated that customers of the Yukon netbook market don't want a "compromised PC exeprience."

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amd, intel, mobile, cpu, processor, atom, netbook, conesus

Posted 11/13/08 at 02:15:33 PM by Paul Lilly

Another day brings with it yet another netbook release, but this latest one makes all the rest look like ginormous notebooks by comparison. Korean manufacturer UMID was spotted showing off its pint-sized portable PC with a touch-screen that measures a scant 4.8-inches, more than 2 inches smaller than the typical netbook.

Despite its small stature, UMID's mini-netbook manages to cram a bunch of goodies underneath the hood. Intel's Atom processor makes a predictable appearance, along with the standard fare 1GB of memory and up to 32GB of SSD storage. But UMID also stuffs the netbook with wireless broadband WiBro, a digital TV receiver, HSDPA, WiMAX, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a webcam, and a micro-SD slot. In addition to Linux and XP, the device also supports Vista.

UMID plans to launch its new tiny netbook sometime in 2009.

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Posted 11/12/08 at 10:40:19 AM by Paul Lilly

Nvidia looks to take on both Intel and Apple and make a bid for the mobile device market with its Tegra chip. The low powered "computer on a chip" boasts an ARM based processor core, HD video decoder capable of 1080p playback, a variation of the GeForce graphics core, an integrated media processor, and more.

Right now the chip is in the development phase, which company president and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says is going exceedingly well. Barring any snags, Huang says we can expect to see Tegra shipping sometime between April and June of 2009. The launch would likely kick off with the Tegra 600 running at 700MHz, Tegra 650 running at 800MHz, and the Tegra APX runing at 600MHz.

It remains unclear which partners plan to utilize Tegra, but given the specs, it shouldn't be hard to find willing manufacturers.

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Posted 11/10/08 at 09:41:36 AM by Paul Lilly

Netbook manufacturers like Asus, MSI, Acer, and all the rest aren't the only ones benefiting from the recent craze in low power, ultraportable notebooks. Underneath the vast majority of netbooks and low-cost desktops sits an Intel Atom processor, demand for which has contributed to record growth in the processor market in Q3 2008.

According to a new report by the IDC, overall CPU shipments for PCs and servers jumped nearly 16 percent in the third quarter compared to one year ago, just over half of which is directly attributable to Intel Atom processor shipments. Without the demand for Intel's Atom processor, IDC says the market would have only grown 7.5 percent.

Whether or not the numbers present a wake-up call to AMD remains to be seen. Intel's rival chip maker has previously stated it would take a wait-and-see approach to the low-cost netbook market, saying "we are watching that segment rather than playing in it, but as it matures we'll see where it goes." But AMD might not want to wait too long. Helped in part by demand for the Atom processor, Intel increased its market share in processor vendor shares by 1.1 percent earning 80.8 percent of the market, while AMD finished with 18.5 percent, representing a loss of 1.2 percent.

Hit the jump and tell us if you think AMD should be paying more attention to the netbook market, or continuing to focus on being competitive on the desktop front.

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Posted 11/09/08 at 03:29:56 PM by Justin Kerr

As hardware junkies, we have little trouble justifying our desire for netbooks. Microsoft on the other hand, is having a huge problem trying to figure out how to cash in on the craze. According to new research conducted by Bloomberg, Microsoft’s historic stock plunge of over 40 percent this year alone can be tied in part to the success of netbooks. These sub $500 PC’s are by far the fastest growing segment in the computing industry. And unfortunately for Microsoft, many of these devices don’t ship with Windows.

Internally, Microsoft estimates that around 70 percent of netbooks run at least some version of Windows. This is a far cry from the over 90 percent market penetration they enjoy in the notebook and desktop segments. Additionally, since the vast majority of netbooks run older versions of Windows, margins are much thinner. The OEM licensing fee of $40/$50 for Windows XP is a drop in the bucket when you compare it to the $100 or more they expect for Vista. Bridging the revenue gap isn’t as easy as raising the price for XP either. Especially when you consider that it only costs around $5 to deploy a version of Linux. The Microsoft tax is widely debated by netbook manufacturers who are scrambling to keep sticker prices low. As a result, Microsoft has cut projections for Windows growth in Q4 to as little as 2 percent. Earlier in the year they were estimating growth of around 9 to 10 percent.

While Microsoft might suffer in the short term, it appears the long term strategy is to address netbooks with the upcoming release of Windows 7. During PDC last week, Steven Sinofsky showed off a $399 netbook running the new OS. And according to Senior Vice President Jon DeVaan, “People will be pleasantly surprised and excited by how Windows 7 runs on low-cost machines”. The over arching question here is if Linux will gain any long term momentum as a result of its new found market penetration. I guess only time will tell.

So would you rather a faster netbook running Linux, or a slightly slower machine with Windows?

Hit the jump and let us know.

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windows, mobile, linux, hardware, consumer electronics, ultraportable, netbook

Posted 11/03/08 at 10:40:47 AM by Paul Lilly

It can be argued that Asus pioneered the netbook market with its Eee PC line, much in the same way Apple stormed the MP3 front with its iPod. And like the iPod, a whole slew of complimentary products have been released with the Eee PC in mind, including a cup holder car mount. But despite the popularity of Asus' Eee PC line, the company may find itself playing second fiddle to Acer when it comes to shipments.

Acer, who announced its Aspire one netbook in June of this year, said shipments by year's end could reach 6 million units, which would be enough to outpace Asus. By comparison, Asus has set a goal of shipping 5 million Eee PCs, a distant second for a company that has had a 6-month head start.

"The netbook segment is growing very nicely," said Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci during the company's third quarter investor's conference in Taipei on Friday.

That might be the understatement of the year. It's been reported that the worldwide PC market is growing on the strength of netbooks, with mini-notebook shipments reaching 80.6 million units in the Q3 2008. The growing segment shows no signs of slowing down, and Acer looks to cash in with anywhere from 12 million to 15 million Aspire one shipments in 2009, according to Lanci.

Will Asus lose its lead in 2009? Hit the jump and tell us your prediction.

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Posted 10/31/08 at 01:00:28 PM by Paul Lilly

Asus company president Jerry Shen expects his company's notebook growth in 2009 to outpace the industry's average of 10 to 20 percent, while also grabbing nearly a third of the netbook market next year with shipments in the 6 to 7.5 million unit range.

According to DigiTimes, part of Asus' growth in the netbook sector will hinge on a new $200 Eee PC that Shen plans to introduce sometime in 2009. Not much is known about the proposed low-cost PC and whether or not it will be on par with the $300 Eee PC 900A Best Buy began selling earlier this month.

Notebooks have become Asus' bread and butter, with mobile PCs now account for 47 percent of the company's revenues. On the growing netbook side, the company's Eee PC line contributes 22 percent, while motherboards and graphics cards accounting for 19 percent, handheld devices 2 percent, and all other products contributing 10 percent of revenue.

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mobile, asus, eee PC, netbook