Is Intel and Google Preparing “Mass Roll-out” of Netbooks?

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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A “reliable source” told VentureBeat that Intel and Google are preparing to mass produce inexpensive Atom-powered netbooks running on Android software. 2009 is possible but they believe 2010 is more likely. Is this the rumored MID (mobile Internet device) that Intel’s been playing with? Speculate in our forums via the link below, won’t cha?

Regardless of the way you look at it, netbook sales are growing, and Intel is probably more than willing to attach itself to any area it sees with growth potential. And Android running on netbooks represents what could be a very viable alternative to those who don’t want netbooks that run an operating system like Windows Vista.
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Netbooks will go the way of the dodo soon enough. Since laptops KEEP coming down in price and KEEP getting smaller, there will be no point to getting these underpowered and overrated machines. You can get a full featured Windows or Linux laptop in the 3-400 range now with dual core Intels or AMDs, 2gb of RAM or more, and 160gb HDs or more. Conversely, the Wind, One, Eee, and Mini are all going for the same price at the same retailer, but have much less hardware power. Atom single cores with 1gb RAM, no opticle drives, 120gb or less (some at 8gb) HD space, and fewer expansion ports.

I put this in the range of the MacBook Air. Lot of hype, and I've yet to see another commercial about it or seem anyone on the street with one. Most people want bang for the buck, and if you get TOO small, it's hard to use. Most people don't have a problem with a 15" wide screen laptop. I think the NetBook phenomenom is dead, dying at best.
 
D-OveRMinD said:
Netbooks will go the way of the dodo soon enough. Since laptops KEEP coming down in price and KEEP getting smaller, there will be no point to getting these underpowered and overrated machines. You can get a full featured Windows or Linux laptop in the 3-400 range now with dual core Intels or AMDs, 2gb of RAM or more, and 160gb HDs or more. Conversely, the Wind, One, Eee, and Mini are all going for the same price at the same retailer, but have much less hardware power. Atom single cores with 1gb RAM, no opticle drives, 120gb or less (some at 8gb) HD space, and fewer expansion ports.

I put this in the range of the MacBook Air. Lot of hype, and I've yet to see another commercial about it or seem anyone on the street with one. Most people want bang for the buck, and if you get TOO small, it's hard to use. Most people don't have a problem with a 15" wide screen laptop. I think the NetBook phenomenom is dead, dying at best.
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far from truth.
many of my friends have em and love em. one of my friends works at the airport and he's seeing more and more people carry them around! personally i think they're great little machines, and believe me plenty of people dont want to lug around those 15" laptops
 
D-OveRMinD said:
Netbooks will go the way of the dodo soon enough. Since laptops KEEP coming down in price and KEEP getting smaller, there will be no point to getting these underpowered and overrated machines. You can get a full featured Windows or Linux laptop in the 3-400 range now with dual core Intels or AMDs, 2gb of RAM or more, and 160gb HDs or more. Conversely, the Wind, One, Eee, and Mini are all going for the same price at the same retailer, but have much less hardware power. Atom single cores with 1gb RAM, no opticle drives, 120gb or less (some at 8gb) HD space, and fewer expansion ports.

I put this in the range of the MacBook Air. Lot of hype, and I've yet to see another commercial about it or seem anyone on the street with one. Most people want bang for the buck, and if you get TOO small, it's hard to use. Most people don't have a problem with a 15" wide screen laptop. I think the NetBook phenomenom is dead, dying at best.
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Sounds to me like someone who doesn't get it.

Yourself is not "Most people." I love my netbook and I'm someone who has a history of buying desktop replacement laptops. My current laptop is a 15.4" widescreen and I consider it to be TOO BIG to casually carry around. Do I want to carry around what is essentially my primary desktop where it will get much more wear and tear just from being put in a bag, bumped against things and dragged around? Fuck, no.

The other problem with your argument is that you compare the MacBook Air to the Netbooks. The MacBook Air, at best, is a hobbled laptop trying to pretend that it's a netbook for 10 times the price. Portability is not the only factor. Price is, too. When you can get a fairly decent enough system (8GB space, 1GB ram, Atom CPU, readable screen) for UNDER $300... This is effectively the first time ANY unit has been sold, brand new and portable, that has specs that run WinXP comfortably enough, that costs UNDER $300.

My netbook has as many expansion ports than my roommate's laptop. His has PCMCIA, mine has dual card readers. We both have 3 USB plugs. So eh. That's not much of an argument there, either. I like my netbook a lot. It's small enough to fit in the zipper pocket of my messenger bag, doesn't feel like I'm wearing a phone book around my shoulders, and that's really the point of it all... you're going to sacrifice specs for portability. Though, being able to buy a 10 hour battery for my Asprire One on eBay for $65 only made it that much sweeter and it's still lighter than the thinnest 15" notebook you could point me at. That's why I keep it with me when I go out.
 
I think the biggest competition for Netbooks will be mobile phones. Netbooks are cool, but the screens are just to small. But really, as battery life, processors, and SSD drives come along, I think the line get blury for netbooks. Low end netbooks and high end laptops cost about the same right now, but the netbooks are about half the weight and typically have better battery life.

I've been thinking about getting on buy I think I wait for a Windows 7 device that works as a tablet. My tx2z is twice the weight of a typical netbook, but I can use it in places where I can't use a netbook despite the weight.

I'm thinking that netbooks might finally break tablets out of their niche role.

As to the Android netbook, what advantage with this have over existing Linux based netbooks?
 
D-OveRMinD said:
Netbooks will go the way of the dodo soon enough. Since laptops KEEP coming down in price and KEEP getting smaller, there will be no point to getting these underpowered and overrated machines. You can get a full featured Windows or Linux laptop in the 3-400 range now with dual core Intels or AMDs, 2gb of RAM or more, and 160gb HDs or more. Conversely, the Wind, One, Eee, and Mini are all going for the same price at the same retailer, but have much less hardware power. Atom single cores with 1gb RAM, no opticle drives, 120gb or less (some at 8gb) HD space, and fewer expansion ports.

I put this in the range of the MacBook Air. Lot of hype, and I've yet to see another commercial about it or seem anyone on the street with one. Most people want bang for the buck, and if you get TOO small, it's hard to use. Most people don't have a problem with a 15" wide screen laptop. I think the NetBook phenomenom is dead, dying at best.
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lol seriously?

Working at a computer lab on campus I usually see the computer "fads" only affecting my coworkers since we're gadget geeks. But now, I've seen more and more students jump on the netbook bandwagon because its a damn good deal. These things weigh less than a typical textbook and WAY less than a 15 inch laptop. They also pretty much eliminate the need to carry a notebook around for taking notes on as well. Long battery life is also the key here and is what is probably the "killer" feature over regular size laptops.

Just look around, this "fad" isn't gonna die anytime soon.
 
D-OveRMinD said:
Netbooks will go the way of the dodo soon enough. Since laptops KEEP coming down in price and KEEP getting smaller, there will be no point to getting these underpowered and overrated machines. You can get a full featured Windows or Linux laptop in the 3-400 range now with dual core Intels or AMDs, 2gb of RAM or more, and 160gb HDs or more. Conversely, the Wind, One, Eee, and Mini are all going for the same price at the same retailer, but have much less hardware power. Atom single cores with 1gb RAM, no opticle drives, 120gb or less (some at 8gb) HD space, and fewer expansion ports.

I put this in the range of the MacBook Air. Lot of hype, and I've yet to see another commercial about it or seem anyone on the street with one. Most people want bang for the buck, and if you get TOO small, it's hard to use. Most people don't have a problem with a 15" wide screen laptop. I think the NetBook phenomenom is dead, dying at best.
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Comedy.
You have no idea how popular "Internet Boxes" are.
You prolly think Nintendo Wii's are going to stop selling soon...

Thanks for the laff.
 
While I don't expect the Android OS to really be a hit unless they fill it out to be like any other flavor of linux, it does seem that these NetBooks are pretty handy. If I had to go Linux, I guess Ubuntu would be a good choice...I'd still prefer Windows XP or Vista. I'm just worried Android will be too limiting. Sure it's good for a phone (maybe), but a laptop? Guess we will see...
 
D-OveRMinD said:
You can get a full featured Windows or Linux laptop in the 3-400 range now with dual core Intels or AMDs, 2gb of RAM or more, and 160gb HDs or more. Conversely, the Wind, One, Eee, and Mini are all going for the same price at the same retailer, but have much less hardware power. Atom single cores with 1gb RAM, no opticle drives, 120gb or less (some at 8gb) HD space, and fewer expansion ports.
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Agreed. These netbooks are mighty expensive for what you get. Some are even in the $400-500 prince range and they come with skimpy hardware compared notebooks in the same price range.

Most people if they have an option of the two will choose the full featured laptop everytime. While there is a market for netbooks some of you are missing the point that joe average doesnt have a desktop and laptop. They choose one or the other and a tiny (comparatively) expensive netbook without an optical drive isnt going to seem inviting.

People here seem to forget most people are pretty ignorant when it comes to computers. They see dual core and 2gb of ram and a bigger screen for the same price as a laptop that has a single core and 1gb of ram are going to choose the one the represents the most bang for buck.

Lower the price to the lower 300's and they might catch on.
 
Also I have an EEE 10inch model. I use the gateway in my sig a lot more just because its easier to use. Typing on these netbooks takes time to get used but even with the most practice my big fingers are going to appreciate the full sized keyboard my gateway offers... which is why I take it to class more then the EEE. 2lbs to 6lbs isn't anything to me. Hell the gateway cost less then EEE too.
 
D-OveRMinD said:
Netbooks will go the way of the dodo soon enough. Since laptops KEEP coming down in price and KEEP getting smaller, there will be no point to getting these underpowered and overrated machines. You can get a full featured Windows or Linux laptop in the 3-400 range now with dual core Intels or AMDs, 2gb of RAM or more, and 160gb HDs or more. Conversely, the Wind, One, Eee, and Mini are all going for the same price at the same retailer, but have much less hardware power. Atom single cores with 1gb RAM, no opticle drives, 120gb or less (some at 8gb) HD space, and fewer expansion ports.

I put this in the range of the MacBook Air. Lot of hype, and I've yet to see another commercial about it or seem anyone on the street with one. Most people want bang for the buck, and if you get TOO small, it's hard to use. Most people don't have a problem with a 15" wide screen laptop. I think the NetBook phenomenom is dead, dying at best.
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You're a bit slow, huh?

You're saying that netbooks will become extinct because they will be replaced with small laptops? As the difference is...? Netbooks are what you can get in that form factor at today's technology. Of course they'll be replaced, technologies are replaced by a more powerful version on a daily basis.
 
At this point, I'm using my eeePC 9" netbook much more than my 22" monitor and 3ghz core2duo, even inside the home. Its just so incredibly non-encumbering. I also even have a 17" laptop at my disposal that I havn't bothered to turn on for the past few weeks!

My netbook has more than enough power to do 99% of my computing needs, and thats coming from a professional student
 
net books with android? Meh maybe just me but i don't think that it would be a good idea to put it on a netbook but for cellphones is ok.
 
D-OveRMinD said:
Netbooks will go the way of the dodo soon enough. Since laptops KEEP coming down in price and KEEP getting smaller, there will be no point to getting these underpowered and overrated machines. You can get a full featured Windows or Linux laptop in the 3-400 range now with dual core Intels or AMDs, 2gb of RAM or more, and 160gb HDs or more. Conversely, the Wind, One, Eee, and Mini are all going for the same price at the same retailer, but have much less hardware power. Atom single cores with 1gb RAM, no opticle drives, 120gb or less (some at 8gb) HD space, and fewer expansion ports.

I put this in the range of the MacBook Air. Lot of hype, and I've yet to see another commercial about it or seem anyone on the street with one. Most people want bang for the buck, and if you get TOO small, it's hard to use. Most people don't have a problem with a 15" wide screen laptop. I think the NetBook phenomenom is dead, dying at best.
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I just hope that this laptop will be cheaper:
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=newsdesc&news_no=668
 
Furystrike said:
At this point, I'm using my eeePC 9" netbook much more than my 22" monitor and 3ghz core2duo, even inside the home. Its just so incredibly non-encumbering. I also even have a 17" laptop at my disposal that I havn't bothered to turn on for the past few weeks!

My netbook has more than enough power to do 99% of my computing needs, and thats coming from a professional student
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You have young eyes! I use my 12.1 1280x800 tablet a lot in the house as well but its just no substitute for dual 24" displays. Netbooks are great at mobility, but for extended work and reading they kill old eyes. Of course you can plug the puppy into a monitor.

I think that D-OveRMinD does have a point. As technology evolves, little screens will become less and less interesting. This has been the case with display technologies in general. You go for the small displays now for netbooks because they are cheap and light and good on power. As OLED technology evolves oen day you should be able to produce as light and power efficient display thats bigger and lighter than current gen netbooks. My point is that there is a price point at which all other things equal (weight and power in the case of a netbook) the consumer wants the bigger and nicer display.

But in current economic conditions I can see the appeal for a $300 dollar computer that does all that you need and that is very portable. I was thinking about getting one as present for my sister as a netbook is really all she needs. I even admit that I'm having netbook envy, until I use one and realize that my tablet kicks its ass, though it is 5 lbs instead of 2.5 lbs. Heck, I need to loose weight like every body else, I figure lunging the extra weight around is burning off so calories!:p
 
heatlesssun said:
You have young eyes! I use my 12.1 1280x800 tablet a lot in the house as well but its just no substitute for dual 24" displays. Netbooks are great at mobility, but for extended work and reading they kill old eyes. Of course you can plug the puppy into a monitor.

I think that D-OveRMinD does have a point. As technology evolves, little screens will become less and less interesting. This has been the case with display technologies in general. You go for the small displays now for netbooks because they are cheap and light and good on power. As OLED technology evolves oen day you should be able to produce as light and power efficient display thats bigger and lighter than current gen netbooks. My point is that there is a price point at which all other things equal (weight and power in the case of a netbook) the consumer wants the bigger and nicer display.

But in current economic conditions I can see the appeal for a $300 dollar computer that does all that you need and that is very portable. I was thinking about getting one as present for my sister as a netbook is really all she needs. I even admit that I'm having netbook envy, until I use one and realize that my tablet kicks its ass, though it is 5 lbs instead of 2.5 lbs. Heck, I need to loose weight like every body else, I figure lunging the extra weight around is burning off so calories!:p
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Sure thing, I'd take the extra screen size if it didn't affect the weight/dimensions too badly. Maybe in the future we'll have netbook size machines with roll-out 27" monitors :)
 
alg7_munif said:
PX211 = ~800 Eur
PR211 = ~500 Eur
Netbooks = 300-400 Eur

USD should be the same I think.
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Actually looking at the specs this isn't that much different than my tx2z tablet. It's got the HD3450 which is a good step up from my HD 3200. I have a ZM-86 Turion which is clocked at 2.4GHz, couldn't find what was in the PX211.

A little pricey perhaps, but this thing will simply destroy any netbook on the market, This puppy is probably fast enough to play most modern games at lower settings but still playable. Even the HD3200 in my machine can run Call of Duty World @ War albeit at low settings and at 800x600. Still pretty playable. Forget about that on a netbook. For its weight and size that machine is one of the fastest around, at least that what the specs are saying and assuming that it carries on the faster Turions.

On thing to watch our for. The faster Turions crank out a LOT of heat when running at full power. Not that you'd probably be running at full power all the time but I know when I game my tx2z get hot and loud, but the performance is fantastic.
 
If they produced one that didn't look like a toy for $200, I'd buy one. Until the prices drop below $400-500 for a decent performing/decent looking one, I'll be sticking to laptops.
 
I'll say one thing. I can fit a netbook in my coat pocket, and I can't fit a 15.4" laptop in my coat pocket. So, to all those who say the netbook will go the way of the dodo, I think it is a rapidly growing and changing market.
 
At my former workplace, the number of people having netbook for its portability. These people don't need large screen or extra computing power, as long as it gets the job done, its so much more convenient to carry the netbook around

Netbook is not going to fail, there's a growing market for it.
 
TheLordsServant said:
I'll say one thing. I can fit a netbook in my coat pocket, and I can't fit a 15.4" laptop in my coat pocket. So, to all those who say the netbook will go the way of the dodo, I think it is a rapidly growing and changing market.
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That a pretty big coat pocket!:)

Hornet said:
At my former workplace, the number of people having netbook for its portability. These people don't need large screen or extra computing power, as long as it gets the job done, its so much more convenient to carry the netbook around

Netbook is not going to fail, there's a growing market for it.
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No netbooks will do well. But right now a lot of that growth is due to cost. The portability is nice and I can appreciate that huge tablet user for all of these years and liking the ability use my computer in different ways and environments. Acer is releasing some touch netbooks this year I believe. The netbook might actually prove to be the market that will make the tablet pc become a force. I actually want them to do well because I think this is the next step in the netbook evolution and because I am a huge tablet nut.
 
The HP2140 will come with a 10"1366x768 screen as an option. Despite the unconventional aspect ratio it's the same DPI as a 1280x800.
 
Would be nice, otoh not having to downscale 720p should help a bit with making it playable...
 
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