Acer has Big Plans for 2009

Confidence and ambition don’t seem to be things in short supply at Acer, at least as far as Netbooks are concerned.

Acer president Gianfranco Lanci stated a few days ago that Acer shipped around 2.4 million Netbooks in the third quarter of 2008 and that demand for the Aspire One continues to climb in the US market. Therefore, he expects the company to surpass its 2008 Netbook goal of 5-6 million units shipped.

Acer has been making optimistic noises like that ever since the Acer Aspire One was released so it is not big news anymore, and the critically acclaimed device is priced low enough that it has been the surprise winner of this season’s “Most Successful Netbook” sweepstakes. However, the really impressive statement Lanci prognosticated that in 2009, the global Netbook market will increase to 30-35 million units shipped from all vendors, and that Acer is in position to claim 40-50% of that market! Fifty percent of the Netbook market will be quite an impressive feat by Acer and I admit I am dubious, now that Lenovo and LG are in the space as well and #1 PC producer HP’s Mininote prices are rivaling the Aspire One.

2009 will be an exciting year for Netbooks. I am looking forward to see what tricks Acer has up their sleeve for the Aspire Two in order to meet that 50 percent of all Netbooks sold goal.

(Source – Digitimes)

Smartphone sized …. means very tiny

There has been a lot of chatter lately about “netbooks” and here is one that I caught today on AVING USA.  WOW, is it small!  Imovio has introduced its smartphone-sized netbook ‘IKIT’.  It has a  2.8-inch display and is running on Marvell PXA270 312MHz processor and Linux OS.  It has a full qwerty keyboard (although you really need tiny fingers), wireless LAN, Bluetooth, a 0.3M webcam and microSD card slot and measures a mere 95X65X15mm and weighs in at 11g.

I think I would rather carry a Windows Mobile device…..

A 500 dollars machine is a piece of Junk

Recently Steve Job was asked about Netbooks and here is what he says:

"We don’t know how to make a $500 machine that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA won’t let us do it."  …and totally shot down a question about touch / tablet computing.

I was talking a few minutes ago with a friend of mine about this comment and he made a point. The first part of this comment is not news. We all know that Apple does not know what the word cheap means. The second part of the news is really something completely new. Apparently those who prefer Macs is because they have it recorded in their genes, it’s part of their DNA. That explains everything, including the huge amount of posts that we receive every time that we post a comment about Apple.

Acer Leads Netbook Optimism

In these days of dire economic fears and direr (is that a real word? If not it should be) predictions, there is one tech segment in which sunny, unbridled optimism is still the Sparkleberry Kool-Aid of the day – Netbooks.

According to industry reports, Acer is on target to make it’s lofty goal of selling 7 (million…thanks Pedah) of their Acer Aspire One Netbook in 2008, despite it only hitting shelves in the middle of the year. What’s more, it has gone ahead and placed it’s 2009 Aspire One orders with turnkey manufacturers Compal Electronics and Wistron…calling for the companies to produce a whopping 15 million of the Netbooks in the calendar year. This will still leave another 5 million units left over (possibly to be produced by Quanta despite bad blood with Acer) as Acer is quite confident it will sell TWENTY MILLION of the devices in 2009. Whether this prediction is despite or because of the ongoing financial turmoil is hard to guess.

Acer does seem to be in the driver’s seat as of late regarding Netbooks, as they have found a way to sell units running Atom processors with large drives at a very low pricepoint. Add to this a lot of favorable reviews for the Aspire One’s keyboard, continued brand recognition problems for the MSi Wind (which they compound by OEMing the device to every two-bit company with a rebranding channel and a little dream of selling a Netbook all their own) and the fact that Dell has failed to sustain the initial hype over the Dell E and it seems that the Aspire One may be the Netbook leader coming into the holiday season.

(Source – Digitimes)

Novell CTO Trapped in 2007

The Industry Standard is running an interesting interview with Novell CTO Nat Friedman about Netbooks. In the process he made some interesting statements that seem to indicate that Novell understands Netbooks…at least the way there were initially.

First of all, regarding Linux in general running on Netbooks, Mr. Friedman says:

People typically don’t care what operating system is on the netbooks, because they don’t buy them to run a suite of applications like Microsoft Office, but to be on the Web using a Web browser.

In my experience this is half right. Netbooks tend to be used both for net browsing/email and light notebook tasks like note taking and simple office documents. On top of that are some elements of leisure activities, like watching video or reading ebooks. Linux can certainly handle most of those tasks just as well as Windows can, however people still tend to want to be able to install applications the way they are used to on Windows, and use programs they are familiar with, like IE or Outlook.

If he were talking about MIDs or UMPCs I would agree completely…those devices are all about the internet. Netbooks, not so much. Maybe that will change when more 3G versions arrive with more connectivity.

After that comment, Friedman appeared to lose his map. and said:

Most of the low-cost netbooks will run Linux, to avoid the higher cost of the Windows operating system, and also because most of them have about 2G bytes of flash storage, for which Linux is more suitable.

2G? Ummm..not for quite awhile. If he is referring to Razorbook variations or the glorified PDA knockoffs that are being seen lately, maybe, but most of them also are now running with more storage. If Novell is still shaping software for the Eee 700 like it’s the cutting edge, then I suggest they answer their SMSs, 2007 wants it’s netbook back.

On a positive note, Friedman said that SUSE Linux versions of netbooks by Lenovo, MSi and HP will be coming soon, which is definitely good news for Linux and netbook fans alike.

Linux Falters in NetBooks

The faithful told us that small, inexpensive, low powered Netbooks were to be the breakthrough product that Linux had always needed. They were perfectly tailored to suit Linux’s strengths (price, configurability, ease of localization).

When the Asus Eee 700/701 were released with a custom Xandros Linux distro, it seemed that the Linux faithful were exactly right and the open source OS had finally found a consumer market champion…but that didn’t last long. Soon, consumers were demanding the option to install XP instead of Linux. Then dedicated XP versions were being released by Asus to satisfy the market and they soon outsold the Linux versions despite the higher price tags . This then in turn ushered in the phenomenal initial growth of Netbooks. Now, Linux versions of Netbooks are really released only for hobbyists. The mainstream bread and butter is made with XP version sales.

Netbooks, which were hoped to finally establish a foothold in the consumer market for Linux, seem to have had the exact opposite effect. They have put paid once and for all to the belief that Linux will have a serious presence on the desktop any time soon, or be viable as a mainstream consumer OS. In the server room, sure Linux has a place, in fact I think over time Linux will come to utterly dominate the server market. However, will Joe and Judy Laptop ever embrace Linux on their home or work PCs?

[Read more]

Sylvania G Netbook Meso

The Sylvania G Netbook Meso is probably the latest Netbook being released in USA.

SAMSUNG ’s First Netbook

 Samsung has released its first notebook, the NC10, in Korea. A move that many of us were expecting.

SAMSUNG finally released their first netbook called NC10 in Korea with U$ 690.00 price tag. Actually, this NC10 discovered earlier in WiBro (WiMax) product launching ceremony which presented by Korea Telecom in August.

SAMSUNG also joins world of netbook

Quanta Stung by Netbooks

Quanta Computer, a major Taiwanese producer of notebook and other small form PCs is blaming the fact that they are making too many Netbooks for a drop in profits in August.

Overall Quanta shipped 3.1 million notebooks and Netbooks in August, an increase of 200,000 units over last August…however it took in 18.5 percent less cash for them. Quanta, which produces the Acer Aspire One as well as upcoming Netbooks for Lenovo and Sony. Apparently Quanta is expecting those products to take their Notebook/Netbook shipments to record highs, and perhaps their profit margin to record lows.

There is clearly a gloomy lining in the silver Netbook cloud that has many Asian PC producers working their factories overtime. The profit margin is so low, and competition so fierce in the popular Netbook lines that they just aren’t making the revenues they do on the much more expensive Notebooks that used to be their bread and butter.

I am quite sure this is a sign of the times and companies are going to have to find new business models to adapt to the changing reality of the market. Vendors that were used to creating premium priced luxury products will have to find creative ways to keep their profits up with lower cost products, more popular devices such as Netbooks.

Don’t weep too many tears for Quanta, however…they are also a producer of Apple’s iPhone.

(Source – Digitimes)

Everun Note full review.

 The Everun Note is so far the biggest step forward I have seen this year is the UMPC arena. It’s a small package with a big heart inside.

Yes, it appears that Raon Digital have broken through with a new class of device here. Its much smaller than a netbook (less than half the volume, 70% of the weight) and yet it packs a CPU and GPU that can leave netbooks standing.

The above comment comes for one of the most complete reviews I have seen about this device and it can be read here.

The Mobile Shakeout will be Liveblogged

We all KNEW it would be coming, we just didn;t know how soon.

UMPCs, MIDs, Netbooks, Mini-notebooks…the mares nest of new mobile form factors was going to get slimmed down by the market. It just had to happen…and I feel it has, or is happening as we speak.

I add my voice to several others of late and declare, with a few conditions, the Netbook form factor to be the winner of this small but fascinating battle to be the next big mobile device.

All sorts of bloggers and gearheads I respect are declaring MIDs and UMPCs technological also-rans over the last few days. Scrupulously honest, Jenn at Pocketables is giving the laurels to Netbooks despite her own personal preferences. Kevin Tofel of jkOnTheRun, one of the most insightful gadget hounds out there, is trading in his Samsung Q1 for a Wind. Even small form evangelist Steve Paine of UMPC Portal is praising the Akoya Mini. I personally agree with all of their views. UMPCs and MIDs are nice and cool and fun for gadget fans, but for the mainstream consumer  they barely ever registered, totally overshadowed by Netbooks.

In fact, pundits all over the net who scorned all small computers as toys 6 months ago are now gleefully stating they have ordered Dell Mini 9s. Dell is NOT such a beloved company that brand loyalty alone could be causing this.

So where are all these conversions coming from?

[Read more]

Deep Dell Discounts

The following information was included in the official Dell blog entry announcing the Mini 9…

If you can wait until 6 a.m. Central tomorrow, Sept. 5, you’ll be able to get a Mini for only $99 with the purchase of a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330 laptop through 6 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 9 (U.S. only).

As I have been saying since these Dell devices were first rumored, this is the power of massive Channel sales and long standing vendor relationships at work. This deal is through Dell’s website but I would expect to see similar or better campaigns concerning the Mini 9 through brick and morter retailers in the months to come.

Add to that news the following, reported by Steven Vaughan-Nichols at his Computerworld blog…

While Dell isn’t saying which wireless carrier they’re working with, John Thode, Dell’s VP of small-screen consumer devices has said that Dell will announce a wireless carrier partnership soon that will get you a Mini 9 of your own for a reduced price or free for signing long-term wireless service contract.

Dell can afford to use their Netbooks as a loss leader or a value added element in larger deals, giving massive discounts and incentives that smaller netbook makers simply can’t. Good for the consumer, good for the retailer, good for Dell and good for netbooks…bad for MSi and others.

(Source – Dell blog)

Dell Netbook, At Last!

The great hope of all of those longing to see Netbooks brought back down to their original low-priced roots, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, has finally arrived in both the US and Europe. According to Dell’s website, it has all the specs, features, flavors and price-points that were leaked, oh, how long was it, three years ago or so? Never let it be said Dell rushes a product to market. Late for the back to School rush, but just in time for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice….and definitely one of the sharper looking Netbooks on offer.

As promised, the low end Ubuntu model comes in at 349 dollars, with an 8.9 screen, 4G SSD, Atom CPU etcetera, etcetera. Higher end machines, with XP and 8G SSDs come in at $449. Thank the Lords they dropped that silly E name. All we would have needed for total Circuit City meltdown would have been for some other vendor to produce an Ee netbook.

“So, let me show you our Netbook options. We have the Es, some very nice Ees, a whole mess of Eees,,perhaps an E XL, or and Eee 3200EXE or an Ee E400WE. Will you want that with an Atom chip, or an Ato? Perhaps a Tom?”

The advance reviews have been good, the specs are co,perable with the middle/low end of the netbook market, and the price point is quite reasonable and looks really good up against the Winds and Eees. With reports that both the HP Mininote and the Acer Aspire One have been selling very well but under the radar of many consumers, I have great hopes for this machine. The Netbook niche has needed a new “Must Have” model since Asus lost the crown by going insane (The Eee Monitor? What the devil do they put in the water in Taiwan?) I only wish they hadn’t called it the Inspiron Mini, but the Axim Maxi. Ah well.

So what do you think, is Dell going to be this years Asus in the Netbook/UMPC market after all?

(Source – Engadget)

An Old Friend Returns

Just when you thought we had seen everything, guess what surfaced at IFA in Berlin? A new netbook running the same slow VIA chip that only an Atom shortage is saving from End of Life. Big whoopie, why even comment on such a thing, as I am sure there were at least 350 vaguely similar, generally unimpressive netbooks announced this weekend alone. Tech fads are tech fads after all.

However, the UMMD 8010/F is different.

You see, the UMMD 8010/F is a COMMODORE. Yes, now I can relive those glorious C64 days, as I amazed my legion of cool, hip friends in Junior High with my a powerful computer of my very own (actually it was more like sitting in a basement playing Hunt the Wumpus with two even geekier 13 year old boys, one of whom had a little sister that kept turning off the light switch that controlled the outlet the C64 was plugged into….thrilling days indeed).

Finally I can own a Commodore home computer again and now that I am an adult, I won’t have as many guys beating me up over it. The UMMD 8010 features the following specs:

• Via C7-M processor
• Microsoft XP or GNU Linux operating systems.
• 10-inch screen
• 80GB hard drive
• 1GB of RAM
• 802.11b/g
• Optional Bluetooth
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• Digital array microphone
• White, black, grey and pink
• £325.

God I wish it were available in beige. Maybe I can airbrush it beige. Now if only I could find a TRS-80 MID, my geek hall of resurrected shame would be complete.
(Source – Pocket Lint)

Lenovo ideapad S10 Netbook - Hands-On

Lenovo releases recently a 10 inches display netbook. A machine that you can fully appreciate in this video.

The use of a latest generation Atom processor at 1.6 GHz should give this machine a really good performance.