OLPC unveils slimline tablet PC
By Jonathan Fildes
Technology reporter, BBC News
OLPC XO-3
In Pictures: Designing the OLPC
The group behind the $100 laptop has revealed the design for its latest computer aimed at connecting children in the developing world.
The XO-3, as it is known, is a slim-line touchscreen tablet PC.
One Laptop per Child (OLPC) said it would be "available in 2012" and would cost "well below $100".
The new design replaces the proposed XO-2, a foldable e-book that was first shown off in 2008 but has since been scrapped by the organisation.
The XO-3 will eventually replace the original XO laptop that first went into production in 2007.
The innovative machines, which have been designed for use in remote and harsh environments, were designed for use by school children and featured a sunlight readable display and open source software.
'Bigger appeal'
OLPC originally aimed to sell the low-cost laptops in lots of one million to governments in developing countries for $100 each.
However, the non-profit organisation had difficulty getting governments to commit to bulk orders. The machines - which are able to run both Linux and Microsoft Windows - are now offered in single units and cost around $200.
the new xo-s laptop
The XO-2 has been scrapped in favour of the XO-3
So far the XO has been distributed to more than 1.4 million children in 35 countries.
The high-price has not however put off all governments. Uruguay has bought a computer for every one of their school children.
Walter de Brouwer, CEO of OLPC Europe said that these "saturation projects" were the future of the organisation both in the developed and the developing world.
"I'm talking to three four countries in the EU at the moment," he told BBC News. "Once one says yes, the others can't say no."
The organisation believes the new design will cost significantly less.
Mr Brouwer said that because of the pace of technological change and the ever decreasing prices of electronics he could imagine the design selling for "50, 60 or 70 euros".
He said governments could pay this back over a number of years, allowing pupils to have a laptop for less than one euro per month.
"This is very realistic," he said.
The concept shows a touchscreen, a camera, induction charger, and a carrying ring on one of its corners.
Its inner workings - including a chip from UK firm ARM - will come from an interim design - the XO 1.75 - set for launch in 2011.
The 1.75 will merge elements of the current machines with technologies - such as a touchscreen - intended to be included in the XO-3.
OLPC recently said that the organisation would just focus on promoting its concepts and educational aims, rather than manufacturing laptops.
"We are not a laptop company," said Mr Brouwer. "Manufacturing a laptop is not such a big deal. The bigger appeal for us is deploying them and integrating them with education systems to transform a society."
Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of the group, said that he hoped that industry would now copy the design for the XO-3.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
How to backup and restore your netbook's storage Source
How to backup and restore your netbook's storage
Source
Mon, Mar 16th, 2009
Hands-on Having a small-capacity solid-state drive in your netbook may be limitation but it has one advantage: it's easy to back up. We don't mean copying a few files over to a safe place, but duplicating the entire drive, operating system and all, ready to drop it all back on if the worst comes to the worst.
PCs often come with recovery disks that you can use to place a fresh copy of the OS and pre-loaded apps back onto a freshly formatted drive. With some free, open source tools, you make one of your own, for your netbook. It'll work whether you use Linux or Windows XP, and whether your machine has a hard disk or a solid-state drive.
How to backup and restore your netbook's storage We use PING - which stands for Partition Image Not Ghost, a reference to Norton Ghost, a commercial disk duplication app - but it requires an external CD drive to boot from. So we've also included details of a second tool, which you can install on a USB Flash drive....
Source
Mon, Mar 16th, 2009
Hands-on Having a small-capacity solid-state drive in your netbook may be limitation but it has one advantage: it's easy to back up. We don't mean copying a few files over to a safe place, but duplicating the entire drive, operating system and all, ready to drop it all back on if the worst comes to the worst.
PCs often come with recovery disks that you can use to place a fresh copy of the OS and pre-loaded apps back onto a freshly formatted drive. With some free, open source tools, you make one of your own, for your netbook. It'll work whether you use Linux or Windows XP, and whether your machine has a hard disk or a solid-state drive.
How to backup and restore your netbook's storage We use PING - which stands for Partition Image Not Ghost, a reference to Norton Ghost, a commercial disk duplication app - but it requires an external CD drive to boot from. So we've also included details of a second tool, which you can install on a USB Flash drive....
Monday, March 16, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Subsidies follow AT&T into netbook market
Subsidies follow AT&T into netbook market
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/03/subsidies-follow-att-into-netbook-market.ars
AT&T plans to expand its netbook subsidies to makers beyond Acer and Dell, eating hundreds in upfront costs in exchange for two years of high monthly 3G cellular data fees.
By Glenn Fleishman | Last updated March 3, 2009 9:25 PM CT
Subsidies follow AT&T into netbook market
AT&T plans to expand an existing subsidy program that pairs a netbook with a cellular data modem and two-year contract. With fees of $60 for unmetered service and a maximum of 5 GB of data usage each month, AT&T has plenty to give to push a new market.
Netbooks are designed with minimal functionality and low-powered processors. But connectivity is the heart that beats inside this massively growing segment of portable sales. Research firms expect sales to rise from 7 percent of portables in 2008 to 12 percent in 2009, or about 35 million units.
By pairing a subsidy, a contract, and ubiquitous high-speed data access, AT&T may have found a niche in the middle of an otherwise moribund business and consumer market. Telecoms often spend hundreds of dollars in marketing to acquire new customers for voice and data services that produce a few thousand dollars in revenue over two years.
AT&T already subsidizes certain Acer and Dell netbooks to get the price down to $99, with rebates of $250 to $350.
Investor's Business Daily reports that AT&T is working on deals with other netbook makers, and would be happy to extend subsidies far outside phones to any gadget that could sport a cellular modem, such as cameras or gaming systems.
Interestingly, Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have long extolled the notion of WiMax, a competing data network standard so far rolled out in just two US cities, as allowing an ecosystem of devices to have always-on high-speed access with a bundled data plan to avoid high per-device charges. That hasn't materialized yet.
http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/03/subsidies-follow-att-into-netbook-market.ars
AT&T plans to expand its netbook subsidies to makers beyond Acer and Dell, eating hundreds in upfront costs in exchange for two years of high monthly 3G cellular data fees.
By Glenn Fleishman | Last updated March 3, 2009 9:25 PM CT
Subsidies follow AT&T into netbook market
AT&T plans to expand an existing subsidy program that pairs a netbook with a cellular data modem and two-year contract. With fees of $60 for unmetered service and a maximum of 5 GB of data usage each month, AT&T has plenty to give to push a new market.
Netbooks are designed with minimal functionality and low-powered processors. But connectivity is the heart that beats inside this massively growing segment of portable sales. Research firms expect sales to rise from 7 percent of portables in 2008 to 12 percent in 2009, or about 35 million units.
By pairing a subsidy, a contract, and ubiquitous high-speed data access, AT&T may have found a niche in the middle of an otherwise moribund business and consumer market. Telecoms often spend hundreds of dollars in marketing to acquire new customers for voice and data services that produce a few thousand dollars in revenue over two years.
AT&T already subsidizes certain Acer and Dell netbooks to get the price down to $99, with rebates of $250 to $350.
Investor's Business Daily reports that AT&T is working on deals with other netbook makers, and would be happy to extend subsidies far outside phones to any gadget that could sport a cellular modem, such as cameras or gaming systems.
Interestingly, Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have long extolled the notion of WiMax, a competing data network standard so far rolled out in just two US cities, as allowing an ecosystem of devices to have always-on high-speed access with a bundled data plan to avoid high per-device charges. That hasn't materialized yet.
Eee PC T91 touchscreen netbook - first look
Eee PC T91 touchscreen netbook - first look
Philip Barker - 26 February 2009 - 5:43pm
Following a visit from Asus earlier today, we got the opportunity to get an exclusive look at some of its upcoming products – including the first touchscreen Eee PC Netbook – the Eee PC T91.
This tiny device is little larger than the first-generation Eee PC 701 – with an 8.9-inch screen, but you’ll now find a swivelling touchscreen panel that allows use as a Tablet PC.
The screen is one of the T91’s best features. It has the same 1024 x 600 pixel resolution as most of the other netbooks we’ve seen, but colours are brilliantly vivid, bringing photographs and movies to life. Images are also clear and sharp – which is unusual on a touchscreen panel. The glossy finish will frustrate some, however, proving reflective in brighter conditions.
The first T91 models to hit the shelves will feature Windows XP, with following products featuring Windows 7. Asus was also keen to stress that the T91 will ship with the company’s own eTouchSuite software, offering a user-friendly environment more suited to touchscreen use.
The sample we saw was a pre-production unit, and it’s too early to judge on build quality. However, there’s plenty of space for keys of a reasonable size, and we found usability to be reasonable.
Components such as the Intel Atom processor and 1024MB of memory are standard netbook fare, although more unusual options include a GPS chip for satellite navigation and a TV tuner.
On sale towards the end of April, prices start at around £420 (inc. VAT).
Philip Barker - 26 February 2009 - 5:43pm
Following a visit from Asus earlier today, we got the opportunity to get an exclusive look at some of its upcoming products – including the first touchscreen Eee PC Netbook – the Eee PC T91.
This tiny device is little larger than the first-generation Eee PC 701 – with an 8.9-inch screen, but you’ll now find a swivelling touchscreen panel that allows use as a Tablet PC.
The screen is one of the T91’s best features. It has the same 1024 x 600 pixel resolution as most of the other netbooks we’ve seen, but colours are brilliantly vivid, bringing photographs and movies to life. Images are also clear and sharp – which is unusual on a touchscreen panel. The glossy finish will frustrate some, however, proving reflective in brighter conditions.
The first T91 models to hit the shelves will feature Windows XP, with following products featuring Windows 7. Asus was also keen to stress that the T91 will ship with the company’s own eTouchSuite software, offering a user-friendly environment more suited to touchscreen use.
The sample we saw was a pre-production unit, and it’s too early to judge on build quality. However, there’s plenty of space for keys of a reasonable size, and we found usability to be reasonable.
Components such as the Intel Atom processor and 1024MB of memory are standard netbook fare, although more unusual options include a GPS chip for satellite navigation and a TV tuner.
On sale towards the end of April, prices start at around £420 (inc. VAT).
Android sales to outstrip iPhone by '12?
March 9, 2009 9:08 AM PDT
Android sales to outstrip iPhone by '12?
by Natasha Lomas digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/Android_Sales_to_Outstrip_iPhone_by_2012';
The iPhone's lead over smartphone upstart Android may be short-lived, according to an industry watcher's predictions.
Android smartphone sales will outstrip iPhone sales by 2012, market researcher Informa Telecoms & Media has predicted in a new report.
Last month, Telefonica Europe said that sales of the iPhone topped 1 million in the U.K. Although T-Mobile UK--the exclusive carrier of the first Android device, the G1--wouldn't say exactly how many of the devices had been sold, it did say the handset now accounts for 20 percent of its contract sales.
Photos: Hands-on with the HTC Magic Android phone
View the full gallery
Web behemoth Google released the first beta developers kit for its Android open OS platform in August, with the first handset--the G1 smartphone--launching the following month. A second handset, the Magic, is expected to arrive next month.
Apple's iPhone has a slightly longer heritage--with the first device arriving in the U.S. in June 2007. However, the iPhone 3G hit stores last July, giving it only a few months' head start on its Google rival.
Both Android and OS X are eating into the market share of the best-selling smartphone OS maker, Symbian. Last year, just under half of smartphones sold were based on Symbian--a drop of 16 percentage points from the year before when it had 65 percent market share. BlackBerry OS, Linux, and Windows Mobile are also gaining popularity and eating some of Symbian's share, according to Informa.
However, London-based Informa believes Symbian's switch to open source will help the Symbian Foundation maintain its leadership over Android, Linux, and Microsoft over the next few years.
Nearly 162 million smartphones were sold last year, surpassing laptop sales for the first time, according to Informa. The market researcher forecasts that smartphone penetration will reach 13.5 percent of new handsets sold this year and that the figure will reach 38 percent by 2013.
Informa also suggests smartphone sales will be immune to the global economic downturn, maintaining a prediction of "robust growth" of 35.3 percent year over year.
Total handset sales, by contrast, won't be as resilient and are set to fall 10.1 per cent year over year, Informa predicts.
Natasha Lomas of Silicon.com reported from London.
Android sales to outstrip iPhone by '12?
by Natasha Lomas digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/Android_Sales_to_Outstrip_iPhone_by_2012';
The iPhone's lead over smartphone upstart Android may be short-lived, according to an industry watcher's predictions.
Android smartphone sales will outstrip iPhone sales by 2012, market researcher Informa Telecoms & Media has predicted in a new report.
Last month, Telefonica Europe said that sales of the iPhone topped 1 million in the U.K. Although T-Mobile UK--the exclusive carrier of the first Android device, the G1--wouldn't say exactly how many of the devices had been sold, it did say the handset now accounts for 20 percent of its contract sales.
Photos: Hands-on with the HTC Magic Android phone
View the full gallery
Web behemoth Google released the first beta developers kit for its Android open OS platform in August, with the first handset--the G1 smartphone--launching the following month. A second handset, the Magic, is expected to arrive next month.
Apple's iPhone has a slightly longer heritage--with the first device arriving in the U.S. in June 2007. However, the iPhone 3G hit stores last July, giving it only a few months' head start on its Google rival.
Both Android and OS X are eating into the market share of the best-selling smartphone OS maker, Symbian. Last year, just under half of smartphones sold were based on Symbian--a drop of 16 percentage points from the year before when it had 65 percent market share. BlackBerry OS, Linux, and Windows Mobile are also gaining popularity and eating some of Symbian's share, according to Informa.
However, London-based Informa believes Symbian's switch to open source will help the Symbian Foundation maintain its leadership over Android, Linux, and Microsoft over the next few years.
Nearly 162 million smartphones were sold last year, surpassing laptop sales for the first time, according to Informa. The market researcher forecasts that smartphone penetration will reach 13.5 percent of new handsets sold this year and that the figure will reach 38 percent by 2013.
Informa also suggests smartphone sales will be immune to the global economic downturn, maintaining a prediction of "robust growth" of 35.3 percent year over year.
Total handset sales, by contrast, won't be as resilient and are set to fall 10.1 per cent year over year, Informa predicts.
Natasha Lomas of Silicon.com reported from London.
Touch Screen
Video: New startup beats Apple to the punch with touchscreen netbook
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=1247
Rumors have swirled this week about Apple creating a touchscreen netbook, but a startup called AlwaysInnovating has recently unveiled a product called the Touch Book that will get the jump on the Mac.
CNET News has a video of AlwaysInnovating CEO Gregoire Gentil giving a demo of the Touch Book. I was impressed at how versatile the machine is. It twists and folds like a standard Tablet PC, but the screen also separates from the keyboard so that you can use just the flatscreen as a touch interface. Plus, it has a magnetic lid so that you can stick it to a metal surface like a refrigerator.
In an Apple-like move, AlwaysInnovating has created the product with hardware/software integration. The Touch Book, which will cost $399, uses a customized version of Linux with a user interface designed to optimize the touch interface. Unfortunately, the UI is not shown in the video.
The Touch Book is also built on an ARM processor, which will make battery life great but could compromise performance.
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=1247
Rumors have swirled this week about Apple creating a touchscreen netbook, but a startup called AlwaysInnovating has recently unveiled a product called the Touch Book that will get the jump on the Mac.
CNET News has a video of AlwaysInnovating CEO Gregoire Gentil giving a demo of the Touch Book. I was impressed at how versatile the machine is. It twists and folds like a standard Tablet PC, but the screen also separates from the keyboard so that you can use just the flatscreen as a touch interface. Plus, it has a magnetic lid so that you can stick it to a metal surface like a refrigerator.
In an Apple-like move, AlwaysInnovating has created the product with hardware/software integration. The Touch Book, which will cost $399, uses a customized version of Linux with a user interface designed to optimize the touch interface. Unfortunately, the UI is not shown in the video.
The Touch Book is also built on an ARM processor, which will make battery life great but could compromise performance.
IDC Report on Netbooks
IDC Report on Netbooks
March 13, 2009
IDC - Press Release
dotted lines
Mini-Notebooks Make Explosive Entry into EMEA PC Market in 2008, and Momentum Will Continue in 2009, Says IDC
16 Feb 2009
LONDON, February 16, 2009 — Following a major surge in the back-to-school season, mini-notebook momentum continued unabated in the final quarter of the year. Thanks to robust consumer demand in Western Europe in the run up to Christmas, overall EMEA mini-notebook shipments reached 3.6 million units, in line with expectations, representing 20% of total portable sales and 30% of consumer portables in EMEA in 4Q08.
For the full year 2008, mini-notebook shipments in EMEA reached close to 7 million units. Positioned as a secondary device for Internet-centric use and representing the first affordable ultraportables in the retail channel, mini-notebooks drove strong consumer momentum and resulted in a major sales boom in 2H08.
”As expected, mini-notebooks were one of the most sought-after items in the Christmas season, particularly in Western Europe, which represented over 80% of volumes,” said Eszter Morvay, research manager at IDC’s EMEA personal computing group. ”Driven by strong vendor and channel push, consumers benefited from the plethora of new models appearing on the shelves from October onwards, and the explosion in the product offering stimulated fierce competition for shelf space. Following in the footsteps of Asus, there are currently more than 50 vendors, from international players to local assemblers, with a mini-notebook offering across EMEA, which is clearly contributing to the ongoing buoyancy.”
The telco channel has also been playing a pivotal role in the development of the EMEA mini-notebook market. While telco operators have been looking at the notebook market for some time to drive new revenue sources, mini-notebooks offer a better fit in terms of value proposition — small and attractive products at lower price, therefore lower subsidy costs. Telco operators also offered additional exposure, which acted as a major accelerator of mini-notebook demand.
Vendor Highlights
Acer has made a strong push in the EMEA mini-notebook market since the Aspire One was launched in June. Although its primary focus is the retail channel, the vendor has also been working on building its presence in the telco channel, partnering with the likes of Phone House, T-Mobile, TIM, and TMN. In addition to the successful Aspire One series, Acer also launched the Packard Bell Dot in October 2008. However, focusing solely on the 8.9in. segment, the vendor is facing increasing competitive pressure from the growing success of 10in. mini-notebooks.
Asus maintained a key position in EMEA, boasting the largest and most complete product portfolio, and continued to play a pivotal role in the market from a branding standpoint. In 4Q08, Asus continued to enjoy strong demand for the Eee PC family and benefit from a large and expanding number of telco partnerships across EMEA, with SFR in France and TIM in Italy being the largest from a volume perspective.
Hewlett-Packard took third place in the EMEA mini-notebook market, helped by the launch of its first consumer mini-notebook, the Compaq Mini 700, in December. The commercial-focused HP2133 saw gradual uptake, due to the higher price and lack of retail presence, but it benefited from several telco deals across the region, including Bouygues, Cosmote, Elisa, and Mobistar.
Samsung was a newcomer to the mini-notebook market in 4Q08, launching the NC10 in October 2008. The product received excellent reviews and enjoyed rapid uptake across EMEA. In addition to strong retail demand, Samsung also benefited from several telco deals, including Phones 4u, T-Mobile, and Vodafone.
Dell introduced the Inspiron Mini in September 2008, launching it across most EMEA countries throughout 4Q08. The vendor continued to work with its key retail partners DSGi, Carrefour, and Tesco, while also benefiting from its EMEA-wide partnership with Vodafone.
Top 5 Vendors: EMEA Mini-Notebook Shipments, 4Q08
Vendor Units (000) % Market Share
1. Acer 1,095 30.3%
2. Asus 1,011 28.0%
3. HP 253 7.0%
4. Samsung 232 6.4%
5. Dell 156 4.3%
Others 864 23.9%
Total 3,610 100%
Source: IDC EMEA Quarterly PC Tracker, Final Results, 4Q08
Market Outlook
IDC expects sustained buoyancy in the EMEA mini-notebook market in the coming quarters, and robust double-digit growth in 2009. Strong vendor push will undoubtedly remain one of the key market drivers. Most vendors are working on expanding their product portfolios with increased distinction between entry-level, mainstream, and even higher-end models. Mini-notebooks will also continue to evolve both from a technology and design standpoint. The shift towards 10in. will continue and is expected to dominate the market in 2009, and we will see the first convertible models with touchscreens appear later this year.
Market dynamics will remain driven by consumer demand, but improving specifications, larger screens, and integrated 3G will make mini-notebooks more appealing to businesses as well. The education sector will be another growth opportunity in the long term. There are already several projects running in the U.K. and Russia, for example, and demand is expected to rise in an effort to promote one-to-one computing across the region.
IT and telco convergence will gain further momentum in 2009. Most vendors have already set up partnerships with key pan-European operators, and will continue to expand this year, targeting second- and third-tier operators in each country. The market will also see a shift from USB to integrated 3G, supported by the plethora of new models coming out with this functionality.
IDC believes the mini-notebook market will be a key growth opportunity in EMEA in 2009 amid the ongoing global economic recession, and will contribute to the sustained expansion of the EMEA portable PC market. However, mini-notebooks will continue to shake the industry from both a go-to-market and a pricing perspective. Mini-notebooks have proven that miniaturization does not have to cost a fortune, and will force vendors to rethink their ultraportable offerings and pricing. New initiatives from AMD, Intel, and Microsoft will also help the industry to reinvent ultraportables in a more affordable packaging.
The mini-notebook market is analyzed as part of IDC’s EMEA Quarterly PC Tracker program and a special report is also available. For more information on IDC’s EMEA Quarterly PC Tracker or other IDC personal computing research services, please contact Associate Vice President Karine Paoli (tel.: +44 [0] 20 8987 7218, email: kpaoli@idc.com). Alternatively, contact your local IDC office or visit www.idc.com.
March 13, 2009
IDC - Press Release
dotted lines
Mini-Notebooks Make Explosive Entry into EMEA PC Market in 2008, and Momentum Will Continue in 2009, Says IDC
16 Feb 2009
LONDON, February 16, 2009 — Following a major surge in the back-to-school season, mini-notebook momentum continued unabated in the final quarter of the year. Thanks to robust consumer demand in Western Europe in the run up to Christmas, overall EMEA mini-notebook shipments reached 3.6 million units, in line with expectations, representing 20% of total portable sales and 30% of consumer portables in EMEA in 4Q08.
For the full year 2008, mini-notebook shipments in EMEA reached close to 7 million units. Positioned as a secondary device for Internet-centric use and representing the first affordable ultraportables in the retail channel, mini-notebooks drove strong consumer momentum and resulted in a major sales boom in 2H08.
”As expected, mini-notebooks were one of the most sought-after items in the Christmas season, particularly in Western Europe, which represented over 80% of volumes,” said Eszter Morvay, research manager at IDC’s EMEA personal computing group. ”Driven by strong vendor and channel push, consumers benefited from the plethora of new models appearing on the shelves from October onwards, and the explosion in the product offering stimulated fierce competition for shelf space. Following in the footsteps of Asus, there are currently more than 50 vendors, from international players to local assemblers, with a mini-notebook offering across EMEA, which is clearly contributing to the ongoing buoyancy.”
The telco channel has also been playing a pivotal role in the development of the EMEA mini-notebook market. While telco operators have been looking at the notebook market for some time to drive new revenue sources, mini-notebooks offer a better fit in terms of value proposition — small and attractive products at lower price, therefore lower subsidy costs. Telco operators also offered additional exposure, which acted as a major accelerator of mini-notebook demand.
Vendor Highlights
Acer has made a strong push in the EMEA mini-notebook market since the Aspire One was launched in June. Although its primary focus is the retail channel, the vendor has also been working on building its presence in the telco channel, partnering with the likes of Phone House, T-Mobile, TIM, and TMN. In addition to the successful Aspire One series, Acer also launched the Packard Bell Dot in October 2008. However, focusing solely on the 8.9in. segment, the vendor is facing increasing competitive pressure from the growing success of 10in. mini-notebooks.
Asus maintained a key position in EMEA, boasting the largest and most complete product portfolio, and continued to play a pivotal role in the market from a branding standpoint. In 4Q08, Asus continued to enjoy strong demand for the Eee PC family and benefit from a large and expanding number of telco partnerships across EMEA, with SFR in France and TIM in Italy being the largest from a volume perspective.
Hewlett-Packard took third place in the EMEA mini-notebook market, helped by the launch of its first consumer mini-notebook, the Compaq Mini 700, in December. The commercial-focused HP2133 saw gradual uptake, due to the higher price and lack of retail presence, but it benefited from several telco deals across the region, including Bouygues, Cosmote, Elisa, and Mobistar.
Samsung was a newcomer to the mini-notebook market in 4Q08, launching the NC10 in October 2008. The product received excellent reviews and enjoyed rapid uptake across EMEA. In addition to strong retail demand, Samsung also benefited from several telco deals, including Phones 4u, T-Mobile, and Vodafone.
Dell introduced the Inspiron Mini in September 2008, launching it across most EMEA countries throughout 4Q08. The vendor continued to work with its key retail partners DSGi, Carrefour, and Tesco, while also benefiting from its EMEA-wide partnership with Vodafone.
Top 5 Vendors: EMEA Mini-Notebook Shipments, 4Q08
Vendor Units (000) % Market Share
1. Acer 1,095 30.3%
2. Asus 1,011 28.0%
3. HP 253 7.0%
4. Samsung 232 6.4%
5. Dell 156 4.3%
Others 864 23.9%
Total 3,610 100%
Source: IDC EMEA Quarterly PC Tracker, Final Results, 4Q08
Market Outlook
IDC expects sustained buoyancy in the EMEA mini-notebook market in the coming quarters, and robust double-digit growth in 2009. Strong vendor push will undoubtedly remain one of the key market drivers. Most vendors are working on expanding their product portfolios with increased distinction between entry-level, mainstream, and even higher-end models. Mini-notebooks will also continue to evolve both from a technology and design standpoint. The shift towards 10in. will continue and is expected to dominate the market in 2009, and we will see the first convertible models with touchscreens appear later this year.
Market dynamics will remain driven by consumer demand, but improving specifications, larger screens, and integrated 3G will make mini-notebooks more appealing to businesses as well. The education sector will be another growth opportunity in the long term. There are already several projects running in the U.K. and Russia, for example, and demand is expected to rise in an effort to promote one-to-one computing across the region.
IT and telco convergence will gain further momentum in 2009. Most vendors have already set up partnerships with key pan-European operators, and will continue to expand this year, targeting second- and third-tier operators in each country. The market will also see a shift from USB to integrated 3G, supported by the plethora of new models coming out with this functionality.
IDC believes the mini-notebook market will be a key growth opportunity in EMEA in 2009 amid the ongoing global economic recession, and will contribute to the sustained expansion of the EMEA portable PC market. However, mini-notebooks will continue to shake the industry from both a go-to-market and a pricing perspective. Mini-notebooks have proven that miniaturization does not have to cost a fortune, and will force vendors to rethink their ultraportable offerings and pricing. New initiatives from AMD, Intel, and Microsoft will also help the industry to reinvent ultraportables in a more affordable packaging.
The mini-notebook market is analyzed as part of IDC’s EMEA Quarterly PC Tracker program and a special report is also available. For more information on IDC’s EMEA Quarterly PC Tracker or other IDC personal computing research services, please contact Associate Vice President Karine Paoli (tel.: +44 [0] 20 8987 7218, email: kpaoli@idc.com). Alternatively, contact your local IDC office or visit www.idc.com.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Google boss backs subsidized Linuxbooks
Google boss backs subsidized Linuxbooks
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/04/schmidt_on_netbooks/
By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has hinted that his company - or at least its partners - will one day subsidize the purchase of extra-low-cost Linux netbooks in an effort to promote the use of its myriad cloud online services.
"What's particularly interesting about netbooks is the price point," Google's Willy Wonka told a room full of financial types this afternoon at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in downtown San Francisco. "Eventually, it will make sense for operators and so forth to subsidize the use of netbooks so they can make services revenue and advertising revenue on the consumption. That's another new model that's coming."
Schmidt called netbooks the "next generation" of the low-cost machines produced by Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. "Products today are not completely done. Things are missing. It's perfectly possible that operating systems that are Linux-based will become a significant player in that space, whereas they have historically not been a significant player in the PC space."
In other words, Schmidt believes the US is going back to the future. The subsidized-PC model famously failed in the late 90s and early aughts, with outfits like PeoplePC and emachines. In the UK, mobile operators are already offering free laptops with wireless contracts.
If Google taps into this plan, you'd have to assume that Googlicious netbooks will be sold by someone other than Google. As the company has shown with its open-source Android mobile stack, Google prefers to keep the direct-sales biz at arm's length.
Developers have often said that Android is already well-suited to netbooks as well as mobile handheld devices. And rumor has it that motherboard-maker ASUS is already hard at work on an Android-based netbook, set for release at the end of this year or early 2010.
Such devices could rule the world, Schmidt said, because cloud online apps are the future. "Cloud computing is one of those changes that are going to happen - regardless of whether or not companies in the ecosystem want it to," he said. "IT systems today are so slow in the way that they evolve...We now have an opportunity to build a whole new generation of applications that cycle much faster."
Just as predictably, Schmidt began his Morgan Stanley Q&A by insisting that Google's search monopoly could vanish at any moment. He pointed to a recent snafu where Google's search engine blocked access to the entire internet.
"We had a bug recently where we put a malware statement out for users, and in that time, Yahoo! searches gained very, very quickly," he said. "It looks like people will move very quickly from one search engine to another, for any number of reasons. We've looked at this very carefully."
But even a cursory examination would show that Google's February snafu knocked out its search engine for less an hour - and that it promptly reclaimed over 60 per cent of the market.
In Google's mind, Google is not a monopoly - but Microsoft certainly is. When asked whether he was at all concerned about a possible search tie-up between Yahoo! and Microsoft, Schmidt said "The problem has to do with Microsoft's ability to use its Windows monopoly to restrict a user's fair choice...Anything that Microsoft would do that would eliminate user choice with respect to the way search engines and internet browsers are distributed - for which it was previously found guilty - would be of concern."
But at one point during his chat - which was broadcast live over the net, but was not open to reporters - Schmidt's typically extreme Google arrogance subsided. At least a tad. In recent months, Google has all but called itself Meltdown-proof. But today he hedged those claims.
"I don't need to talk to this audience about the state of the global economy. The situation is pretty dire," he said. "During this time, what's happening is that people are using the internet more. But it obviously will affect the online advertising markets as well - simply because our systems are so tightly tuned that if customers are buying less it will eventually be reflected in [cost per advertising click]...
"We are not immune - 'we' Google and 'we' the online-advertising industry. But we may be better positioned than other advertisers."
Google's ad system isn't as "tightly tuned" as Schmidt would indicate. And in the fourth quarter, the company pumped its revenues a cool 18 per cent. But perhaps he's hinting that Q1 isn't going quite as well as the company might like.
After conversations with countless "CEOs and customers," Schmidt predicts that the global recession won't subside until 2010. But when it does, he says, Americans will still be Americans. "What we have to do in our country in solve the credit problem. We have to get the job situation at least stable. And we have to do something about the housing crisis," he said. "All of those things are being worked on now. When those things are done, it's a reasonable bet that Americans will go back to what they do best, which is spend money."
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/04/schmidt_on_netbooks/
By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has hinted that his company - or at least its partners - will one day subsidize the purchase of extra-low-cost Linux netbooks in an effort to promote the use of its myriad cloud online services.
"What's particularly interesting about netbooks is the price point," Google's Willy Wonka told a room full of financial types this afternoon at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in downtown San Francisco. "Eventually, it will make sense for operators and so forth to subsidize the use of netbooks so they can make services revenue and advertising revenue on the consumption. That's another new model that's coming."
Schmidt called netbooks the "next generation" of the low-cost machines produced by Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. "Products today are not completely done. Things are missing. It's perfectly possible that operating systems that are Linux-based will become a significant player in that space, whereas they have historically not been a significant player in the PC space."
In other words, Schmidt believes the US is going back to the future. The subsidized-PC model famously failed in the late 90s and early aughts, with outfits like PeoplePC and emachines. In the UK, mobile operators are already offering free laptops with wireless contracts.
If Google taps into this plan, you'd have to assume that Googlicious netbooks will be sold by someone other than Google. As the company has shown with its open-source Android mobile stack, Google prefers to keep the direct-sales biz at arm's length.
Developers have often said that Android is already well-suited to netbooks as well as mobile handheld devices. And rumor has it that motherboard-maker ASUS is already hard at work on an Android-based netbook, set for release at the end of this year or early 2010.
Such devices could rule the world, Schmidt said, because cloud online apps are the future. "Cloud computing is one of those changes that are going to happen - regardless of whether or not companies in the ecosystem want it to," he said. "IT systems today are so slow in the way that they evolve...We now have an opportunity to build a whole new generation of applications that cycle much faster."
Just as predictably, Schmidt began his Morgan Stanley Q&A by insisting that Google's search monopoly could vanish at any moment. He pointed to a recent snafu where Google's search engine blocked access to the entire internet.
"We had a bug recently where we put a malware statement out for users, and in that time, Yahoo! searches gained very, very quickly," he said. "It looks like people will move very quickly from one search engine to another, for any number of reasons. We've looked at this very carefully."
But even a cursory examination would show that Google's February snafu knocked out its search engine for less an hour - and that it promptly reclaimed over 60 per cent of the market.
In Google's mind, Google is not a monopoly - but Microsoft certainly is. When asked whether he was at all concerned about a possible search tie-up between Yahoo! and Microsoft, Schmidt said "The problem has to do with Microsoft's ability to use its Windows monopoly to restrict a user's fair choice...Anything that Microsoft would do that would eliminate user choice with respect to the way search engines and internet browsers are distributed - for which it was previously found guilty - would be of concern."
But at one point during his chat - which was broadcast live over the net, but was not open to reporters - Schmidt's typically extreme Google arrogance subsided. At least a tad. In recent months, Google has all but called itself Meltdown-proof. But today he hedged those claims.
"I don't need to talk to this audience about the state of the global economy. The situation is pretty dire," he said. "During this time, what's happening is that people are using the internet more. But it obviously will affect the online advertising markets as well - simply because our systems are so tightly tuned that if customers are buying less it will eventually be reflected in [cost per advertising click]...
"We are not immune - 'we' Google and 'we' the online-advertising industry. But we may be better positioned than other advertisers."
Google's ad system isn't as "tightly tuned" as Schmidt would indicate. And in the fourth quarter, the company pumped its revenues a cool 18 per cent. But perhaps he's hinting that Q1 isn't going quite as well as the company might like.
After conversations with countless "CEOs and customers," Schmidt predicts that the global recession won't subside until 2010. But when it does, he says, Americans will still be Americans. "What we have to do in our country in solve the credit problem. We have to get the job situation at least stable. And we have to do something about the housing crisis," he said. "All of those things are being worked on now. When those things are done, it's a reasonable bet that Americans will go back to what they do best, which is spend money."
Whither Windows? OLPC 2 likely to use ARM, not x86
Whither Windows? OLPC 2 likely to use ARM, not x86
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/03/olpc-project-to-adopt-arm-processors.ars
OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte has revealed that the project could switch to ARM processors for its next-gen XO laptop. This move is odd in light of the organization's increasingly Microsoft-centric software strategy, but Negroponte says he is hopeful that Microsoft will port Windows XP to ARM.
By Ryan Paul | Last updated March 13, 2009 9:37 AM CT
Whither Windows? OLPC 2 likely to use ARM, not x86
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, which seeks to produce low-cost laptops for education, revealed on Thursday that it might drop the aging AMD Geode processor it has been using and replace it with ARM chips in its next-generation mobile computing device.
OLPC, which emerged from the MIT media lab and was founded by Nicholas Negroponte, has been plagued by an endless stream of technical problems and logistical blunders. The cost of the hardware, which was originally targeted at an ambitious $100, has climbed by 88 percent. The software platform strategy has totally disintegrated, leading to significant friction within the organization. Key figures have left in frustration and have vocally criticized Negroponte for taking actions that conflict with OLPC's stated goals.
In January, OLPC downsized half of its staff and largely discontinued its involvement in the development of the Sugar software framework—an education-oriented software environment built with open source technologies that is designed to run on the Linux operating system. Negroponte says that the cuts were needed because the organization's large corporate sponsors are closing their wallets in the current economic climate. In addition, the second Give 1 Get 1 program, a major source of funding for the project, fell flat and generated only a fraction of the revenue that was produced by the problematic first attempt.
OLPC could simply not afford to continue without major cuts and a serious change in strategy. Negroponte attempted to reorganize the group and shifted the focus away from large-scale distribution. The new approach is to produce hardware designs that can be manufactured and brought to market by commercial partners. This approach is similar to the one that Intel has pursued with its Classmate PC, which has already shipped to students in greater number than the OLPC XO laptop.
OLPC says that they intend to use ARM processors for their next-generation hardware because the ARM chips will use less power and could potentially deliver better performance than the aging AMD Geode that runs the current OLPC model. This seems like a reasonable move in principle, but it makes little sense when viewed in the context of the organization's software strategy—though it's hard to tell what the software strategy is even supposed to be anymore.
When OLPC began building closer ties with Microsoft and publicly criticizing Linux in press interviews, concerns were expressed by OLPC members that Negroponte might be preparing to abandon Sugar. He vigorously denied it and claimed that OLPC was planning to significantly increase its commitment to Sugar. Only months later, he reversed this position when he ended OLPC's involvement in Sugar development and turned it over to the community. Ongoing Sugar development is handled by Sugar Labs, which is run by former OLPC president Walter Bender.
The problem with moving to ARM is that Windows XP, which OLPC has increasingly been warming up to, won't run on it at all. Even the existing, Fedora-based Sugar platform would probably require some tweaking. Fedora's ARM port is promising, but still somewhat experimental. I suspect that the Fedora ARM port is mature enough that it could be adapted to meet OLPC's needs within a reasonable timeframe (an alternate approach would be to make Sugar and OLPC's software customizations work well on Canonical's officially supported ARM port of Ubuntu), but that would still require at least some software engineering. It's unclear if Sugar Labs is in a position to handle that kind of development at this stage.
Negroponte seems convinced that a Windows port for ARM would be advantageous to the project. Microsoft might have an incentive to port XP to ARM in order to prevent Linux from gaining ground on the inevitable commercial ARM-based netbooks, but it seems more likely that Microsoft would rather invest in moving forward with Windows Mobile for that market. Microsoft seems to have a clearly defined roadmap for Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7, but Negroponte isn't crazy about the idea of using Windows Mobile for his device.
"Like many, we are urging Microsoft to make Windows—not Windows Mobile—available on the Arm. This is a complex question for them," Negroponte told IDG.
Some pundits are speculating that Google's Linux-based Android platform could potentially be an option for an ARM-based OLPC device. Although Android could probably be made to run on the hardware, it really doesn't seem like a feasible choice. As Google's engineers have pointed out, Android uses the Linux kernel but is fundamentally not a Linux platform.
The Android stack doesn't support Xorg and is not capable of running conventional desktop Linux software. It's absolutely not equipped to accommodate Sugar (which is built with Python and GTK+) and there is no conceivable glide path for making such a port.
The hardware plans—a device with a dual-touchscreen interface and an extremely low-power ARM chip—are intriguing. I think that a device of that nature could have a lot of practical value if it's designed well. However, the general lack of direction at OLPC, the lack of staffing, the lack of resources, and the lack of a successful track record don't really bode well. The fact that Negroponte is publicly begging Microsoft for a Windows ARM port also adds to my skepticism.
The entire effort appears to have been in a steady downward spiral during the past year, and the potential for recovery looks slim. The latest revelation—an unplanned architecture change without any clearly articulated software strategy—seems to further erode the odds of success.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/03/olpc-project-to-adopt-arm-processors.ars
OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte has revealed that the project could switch to ARM processors for its next-gen XO laptop. This move is odd in light of the organization's increasingly Microsoft-centric software strategy, but Negroponte says he is hopeful that Microsoft will port Windows XP to ARM.
By Ryan Paul | Last updated March 13, 2009 9:37 AM CT
Whither Windows? OLPC 2 likely to use ARM, not x86
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, which seeks to produce low-cost laptops for education, revealed on Thursday that it might drop the aging AMD Geode processor it has been using and replace it with ARM chips in its next-generation mobile computing device.
OLPC, which emerged from the MIT media lab and was founded by Nicholas Negroponte, has been plagued by an endless stream of technical problems and logistical blunders. The cost of the hardware, which was originally targeted at an ambitious $100, has climbed by 88 percent. The software platform strategy has totally disintegrated, leading to significant friction within the organization. Key figures have left in frustration and have vocally criticized Negroponte for taking actions that conflict with OLPC's stated goals.
In January, OLPC downsized half of its staff and largely discontinued its involvement in the development of the Sugar software framework—an education-oriented software environment built with open source technologies that is designed to run on the Linux operating system. Negroponte says that the cuts were needed because the organization's large corporate sponsors are closing their wallets in the current economic climate. In addition, the second Give 1 Get 1 program, a major source of funding for the project, fell flat and generated only a fraction of the revenue that was produced by the problematic first attempt.
OLPC could simply not afford to continue without major cuts and a serious change in strategy. Negroponte attempted to reorganize the group and shifted the focus away from large-scale distribution. The new approach is to produce hardware designs that can be manufactured and brought to market by commercial partners. This approach is similar to the one that Intel has pursued with its Classmate PC, which has already shipped to students in greater number than the OLPC XO laptop.
OLPC says that they intend to use ARM processors for their next-generation hardware because the ARM chips will use less power and could potentially deliver better performance than the aging AMD Geode that runs the current OLPC model. This seems like a reasonable move in principle, but it makes little sense when viewed in the context of the organization's software strategy—though it's hard to tell what the software strategy is even supposed to be anymore.
When OLPC began building closer ties with Microsoft and publicly criticizing Linux in press interviews, concerns were expressed by OLPC members that Negroponte might be preparing to abandon Sugar. He vigorously denied it and claimed that OLPC was planning to significantly increase its commitment to Sugar. Only months later, he reversed this position when he ended OLPC's involvement in Sugar development and turned it over to the community. Ongoing Sugar development is handled by Sugar Labs, which is run by former OLPC president Walter Bender.
The problem with moving to ARM is that Windows XP, which OLPC has increasingly been warming up to, won't run on it at all. Even the existing, Fedora-based Sugar platform would probably require some tweaking. Fedora's ARM port is promising, but still somewhat experimental. I suspect that the Fedora ARM port is mature enough that it could be adapted to meet OLPC's needs within a reasonable timeframe (an alternate approach would be to make Sugar and OLPC's software customizations work well on Canonical's officially supported ARM port of Ubuntu), but that would still require at least some software engineering. It's unclear if Sugar Labs is in a position to handle that kind of development at this stage.
Negroponte seems convinced that a Windows port for ARM would be advantageous to the project. Microsoft might have an incentive to port XP to ARM in order to prevent Linux from gaining ground on the inevitable commercial ARM-based netbooks, but it seems more likely that Microsoft would rather invest in moving forward with Windows Mobile for that market. Microsoft seems to have a clearly defined roadmap for Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7, but Negroponte isn't crazy about the idea of using Windows Mobile for his device.
"Like many, we are urging Microsoft to make Windows—not Windows Mobile—available on the Arm. This is a complex question for them," Negroponte told IDG.
Some pundits are speculating that Google's Linux-based Android platform could potentially be an option for an ARM-based OLPC device. Although Android could probably be made to run on the hardware, it really doesn't seem like a feasible choice. As Google's engineers have pointed out, Android uses the Linux kernel but is fundamentally not a Linux platform.
The Android stack doesn't support Xorg and is not capable of running conventional desktop Linux software. It's absolutely not equipped to accommodate Sugar (which is built with Python and GTK+) and there is no conceivable glide path for making such a port.
The hardware plans—a device with a dual-touchscreen interface and an extremely low-power ARM chip—are intriguing. I think that a device of that nature could have a lot of practical value if it's designed well. However, the general lack of direction at OLPC, the lack of staffing, the lack of resources, and the lack of a successful track record don't really bode well. The fact that Negroponte is publicly begging Microsoft for a Windows ARM port also adds to my skepticism.
The entire effort appears to have been in a steady downward spiral during the past year, and the potential for recovery looks slim. The latest revelation—an unplanned architecture change without any clearly articulated software strategy—seems to further erode the odds of success.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
By-pass Internet Security! - Video
This is illustrative example on how a culture of deception bypasses company and school Internet protocols. Illustrative of an example of bypassing controls.
more about "By-pass Internet Security! - Video", posted with vodpod
Asus EEE PC 900 Vista Vs XP Vs Linux - Boot & Shutdown Test
YouTube online test of three operationg systems
more about "Asus EEE PC 900 Vista Vs XP Vs Linux ...", posted with vodpod
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The netBook, new targets for hackers?
Translated from French to English
Source
Les netbooks , nouvelles cibles pour les pirates informatiques? http://bit.ly/EIIEz
The netBook, new targets for hackers?
Reuters | 03.03.2009 | 12:33
By Kelvin Soh
TAIPEI (Reuters) - If the flood of netBook has helped millions of people to acquire a computer, the savings on the safety of these mini-PC at low price make them ideal prey for hackers.
Since their introduction in the market for less than two years by the Taiwanese Asustek, almost all the major PC manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer and Lenovo, have followed suit.
In the view of analysts, all the ingredients together to make the perfect target netBook viruses and hackers, they are simple, low power and their users often neophytes.
"Internet is full of dangers, whatever computer you use," said Saturday Yen, head of marketing for the antivirus software company Symantec.
"But keeping in mind that the NETBOOK is primarily used for surfing the Internet, the dangers are multiplied, especially if the computer is not protected by antivirus software."
Especially with a price that can call down to $ 300, these ultra-portable computers do not usually s'encombrent standards such as firewalls or other security software ships pre-installed on computers.
"Frankly, the security on the netBook is not it," said Pranab Sarmah, an analyst at the Daiwa Research Institute.
"The positioning of NETBOOK is that manufacturers will make every effort to continue to offer attractive prices for consumers, which means keeping costs down."
Many users netBook are newcomers on the internet and can not be fully informed about taking precautions to protect themselves. In addition, more sophisticated users may be tempted to shut down security programs to overcome the low power of the computer.
Sales growth at risk?
NetBook sales could more than double in 2009 and reach 21 million units, according to forecasts of firm IDC, which provides a modest growth of 4% of total PC sales to 305 million units.
Some scholars suggest that the inability of netBook to provide effective protection could hinder the growth of the segment, by discouraging customers accustomed to working with sensitive data. Business customers now represents more than half of total sales of computers.
"Most companies will continue to opt for portable computers capable of hosting traditional security software performance," said Eric Ashdown, director of security and risk at Accenture.
NETBOOK but is primarily intended for a casual user who does not store sensitive information on your computer, use that could provide him with better security, "said Ashdown. "Most attacks are aimed at computers with data, to data that have an economic value," said Ashdown.
"If I were a hacker, I'm not sure I'm interested in netBook. What I could find? Family photos".
Source
Les netbooks , nouvelles cibles pour les pirates informatiques? http://bit.ly/EIIEz
The netBook, new targets for hackers?
Reuters | 03.03.2009 | 12:33
By Kelvin Soh
TAIPEI (Reuters) - If the flood of netBook has helped millions of people to acquire a computer, the savings on the safety of these mini-PC at low price make them ideal prey for hackers.
Since their introduction in the market for less than two years by the Taiwanese Asustek, almost all the major PC manufacturers, including Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer and Lenovo, have followed suit.
In the view of analysts, all the ingredients together to make the perfect target netBook viruses and hackers, they are simple, low power and their users often neophytes.
"Internet is full of dangers, whatever computer you use," said Saturday Yen, head of marketing for the antivirus software company Symantec.
"But keeping in mind that the NETBOOK is primarily used for surfing the Internet, the dangers are multiplied, especially if the computer is not protected by antivirus software."
Especially with a price that can call down to $ 300, these ultra-portable computers do not usually s'encombrent standards such as firewalls or other security software ships pre-installed on computers.
"Frankly, the security on the netBook is not it," said Pranab Sarmah, an analyst at the Daiwa Research Institute.
"The positioning of NETBOOK is that manufacturers will make every effort to continue to offer attractive prices for consumers, which means keeping costs down."
Many users netBook are newcomers on the internet and can not be fully informed about taking precautions to protect themselves. In addition, more sophisticated users may be tempted to shut down security programs to overcome the low power of the computer.
Sales growth at risk?
NetBook sales could more than double in 2009 and reach 21 million units, according to forecasts of firm IDC, which provides a modest growth of 4% of total PC sales to 305 million units.
Some scholars suggest that the inability of netBook to provide effective protection could hinder the growth of the segment, by discouraging customers accustomed to working with sensitive data. Business customers now represents more than half of total sales of computers.
"Most companies will continue to opt for portable computers capable of hosting traditional security software performance," said Eric Ashdown, director of security and risk at Accenture.
NETBOOK but is primarily intended for a casual user who does not store sensitive information on your computer, use that could provide him with better security, "said Ashdown. "Most attacks are aimed at computers with data, to data that have an economic value," said Ashdown.
"If I were a hacker, I'm not sure I'm interested in netBook. What I could find? Family photos".
Netbook tactile
Netbook tactile d'Apple? - Excite France http://bit.ly/Zyp7j
Translation: French » English
The rumor seems to be confirmed: Apple will finally launch into the adventure of tactile netBook.
This is the Taiwanese manufacturer WINTEK that sowed doubt in the minds by announcing the Commercial Times that it is currently working on touch screens that provide for a future product of the Apple-branded yet kept secret. According the same source, Quanta Computer would deal with the realization of the mysterious device, expected for the third quarter of 2009.
The mark to the form of apple does not hide his interest in the flowering of these small laptops called the NETBOOK now, but Steve Jobs has made no official announcement about this. Beating the NETBOOK, Apple holds perhaps a nice technological innovation?
Translation: French » English
The rumor seems to be confirmed: Apple will finally launch into the adventure of tactile netBook.
This is the Taiwanese manufacturer WINTEK that sowed doubt in the minds by announcing the Commercial Times that it is currently working on touch screens that provide for a future product of the Apple-branded yet kept secret. According the same source, Quanta Computer would deal with the realization of the mysterious device, expected for the third quarter of 2009.
The mark to the form of apple does not hide his interest in the flowering of these small laptops called the NETBOOK now, but Steve Jobs has made no official announcement about this. Beating the NETBOOK, Apple holds perhaps a nice technological innovation?
Monday, March 9, 2009
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Google CEO hints Google/Linux netbooks may be coming
Google CEO hints Google/Linux netbooks may be coming
People have been speculating about Google getting into the desktop business ever since Good OS, an Ubuntu-based Linux built around online Google applications showed up in 2007. Then, the rumor-mill really got churning when it was shown that Google mobile operating system, Android, would work just fine as a desktop operating system. Just because something can be done, though, doesn't mean a company actually going to do it though. On March 3rd, though, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "What's particularly interesting about netbooks is the price point. Eventually, it will make sense for operators and so forth to subsidize the use of netbooks so they can make services revenue and advertising revenue on the consumption. That's another new model that's coming."
Making money from online advertising. Hmm... Now what company, with a name that starts with 'G' and ends with 'e,' do we know that's the absolute tip-top at making money from online advertising? Could it be Google!? I think so.
The idea of selling netbooks cheaply with a service contract is already being tried. Dell and AT&T offered a Dell Mini 9 for $99 with an AT&T Data Connect contract. I have no doubt you'll see similar mobile phone like discount netbook pricing from other PC companies and telecoms soon. Look for these offers to start showing up everywhere later this year or early next year, as high-speed WiMAX networking starts to come into its own.
It makes perfect business sense for Google to jump into this business. Netbooks continue to be the one bright spot in computer sales and Google already has a Linux that will work on them. Google, of course, also has many online applications that work perfectly on a netbook. Making it even more attractive, Google is making it possible to use their applications, such as GMail, without a Internet connection.
Now take all this, combine it with putting data and applications on the cloud and Google's online advertising savvy, and I see a business model that, even in this grim economy, can't help but make money.
We've gone from pure speculation, to speculation based on facts, and now Google's CEO is talking about how much sense this kind of idea makes. I hereby predict that we'll see the first netbooks with an official Google Linux desktop on them by the second half of this year. It will happen that quickly because Google won't want to give Microsoft a chance to regroup with Windows 7 from its Vista disaster.
In 2010, the big desktop operating system battle will be between Apple, on the high-end, Google and the other Linuxes on the netbook and other low-priced systems, and Windows getting squeezed in the middle. If I were a betting man, I'd put good money on it.
People have been speculating about Google getting into the desktop business ever since Good OS, an Ubuntu-based Linux built around online Google applications showed up in 2007. Then, the rumor-mill really got churning when it was shown that Google mobile operating system, Android, would work just fine as a desktop operating system. Just because something can be done, though, doesn't mean a company actually going to do it though. On March 3rd, though, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "What's particularly interesting about netbooks is the price point. Eventually, it will make sense for operators and so forth to subsidize the use of netbooks so they can make services revenue and advertising revenue on the consumption. That's another new model that's coming."
Making money from online advertising. Hmm... Now what company, with a name that starts with 'G' and ends with 'e,' do we know that's the absolute tip-top at making money from online advertising? Could it be Google!? I think so.
The idea of selling netbooks cheaply with a service contract is already being tried. Dell and AT&T offered a Dell Mini 9 for $99 with an AT&T Data Connect contract. I have no doubt you'll see similar mobile phone like discount netbook pricing from other PC companies and telecoms soon. Look for these offers to start showing up everywhere later this year or early next year, as high-speed WiMAX networking starts to come into its own.
It makes perfect business sense for Google to jump into this business. Netbooks continue to be the one bright spot in computer sales and Google already has a Linux that will work on them. Google, of course, also has many online applications that work perfectly on a netbook. Making it even more attractive, Google is making it possible to use their applications, such as GMail, without a Internet connection.
Now take all this, combine it with putting data and applications on the cloud and Google's online advertising savvy, and I see a business model that, even in this grim economy, can't help but make money.
We've gone from pure speculation, to speculation based on facts, and now Google's CEO is talking about how much sense this kind of idea makes. I hereby predict that we'll see the first netbooks with an official Google Linux desktop on them by the second half of this year. It will happen that quickly because Google won't want to give Microsoft a chance to regroup with Windows 7 from its Vista disaster.
In 2010, the big desktop operating system battle will be between Apple, on the high-end, Google and the other Linuxes on the netbook and other low-priced systems, and Windows getting squeezed in the middle. If I were a betting man, I'd put good money on it.
Eight Netbooks Compared
http://sharepointineducation.com/?p=587
8 Netbooks for Education to consider
March 8, 2009 by Mike Herrity · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Netbooks
As we are on the topic of netbooks at the moment I thought I would share some quick research I did this week. I have been looking at a suitable product for our students to use in mobile classrooms around the site. If you remember I set out a list of basic specs at the beginning of the year which I thought were essential for a netbook before we consider a significant purchase. These were a minimum 10 inch screen, 1GB ram and a good sized solid state drive. With these three basic criteria the SSD is the only area which will take more time to become standard and is taking longer than I imagined to become mainstream. Clearly processing and graphics are key development factors but it is not yet possible to put some specific requirements on this area, only to note that things will and need to improve.
With all this in mind I have identified 8 netbooks to show you today if you are in a similar position and looking at a significant purchase for your school. This is not a review but more a list to identify from and a means to keep up with current prices which I will show in $ and also £ where possible. I am using Amazon to show the price as my initial benchmark price of $650 came from Amazon in August when the Asus 1000H was launched. The only major machine I am missing in the 10 inch category that I know about is the Dell Mini 10.
8 Comparable Netbooks to consider for use in education
Acer Aspire One AOD150-1165 10.1-Inch Netbook - $349.99
ARCHOS 10 10.2-Inch Netbook - $349.99
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA 10-Inch Netbook $349.99 (£314)
HP Mini 1035NR 10.2-Inch Netbook $399.99
Lenovo Ideapad S10 10.2-Inch Netbook $349.99
m
MSI Wind U120-024US 10-Inch Netbook £329.99
Samsung NC10 10.2-inch Netbook $435 (£352)
Sylvania GNET31201XS 10-Inch Magni Elite Slate G-Netbook $349.99
The first observation is that the machines are almost all identically priced at $349.99. MSI Wind might be the company driving price down at the moment with HP and especially Samsung perhaps trying to differentiate themselves on build quality. The machines have almost all the same specifications with the exception of Archos having a 3 cell battery and HP only a 60GB hard drive compared to 160GB in all the other devices. Also interesting to note that on Amazon UK only 2 of the 8 machines are available for sale!
It will be interesting to see how far (if at all) price falls in the next year and what improvement in specification we will see. Two major changes are already evident in the market with Asus bring out a 1000HE containing the Intel Atom N280 processor and Samsung moving up to 12 inch screens with the NC20. This move is also interesting as Samsung have switched to VIA for their processor instead of Intel. I will run an update of this post in 3 months and we can see what the market looks like then
8 Netbooks for Education to consider
March 8, 2009 by Mike Herrity · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Netbooks
As we are on the topic of netbooks at the moment I thought I would share some quick research I did this week. I have been looking at a suitable product for our students to use in mobile classrooms around the site. If you remember I set out a list of basic specs at the beginning of the year which I thought were essential for a netbook before we consider a significant purchase. These were a minimum 10 inch screen, 1GB ram and a good sized solid state drive. With these three basic criteria the SSD is the only area which will take more time to become standard and is taking longer than I imagined to become mainstream. Clearly processing and graphics are key development factors but it is not yet possible to put some specific requirements on this area, only to note that things will and need to improve.
With all this in mind I have identified 8 netbooks to show you today if you are in a similar position and looking at a significant purchase for your school. This is not a review but more a list to identify from and a means to keep up with current prices which I will show in $ and also £ where possible. I am using Amazon to show the price as my initial benchmark price of $650 came from Amazon in August when the Asus 1000H was launched. The only major machine I am missing in the 10 inch category that I know about is the Dell Mini 10.
8 Comparable Netbooks to consider for use in education
Acer Aspire One AOD150-1165 10.1-Inch Netbook - $349.99
ARCHOS 10 10.2-Inch Netbook - $349.99
ASUS Eee PC 1000HA 10-Inch Netbook $349.99 (£314)
HP Mini 1035NR 10.2-Inch Netbook $399.99
Lenovo Ideapad S10 10.2-Inch Netbook $349.99
m
MSI Wind U120-024US 10-Inch Netbook £329.99
Samsung NC10 10.2-inch Netbook $435 (£352)
Sylvania GNET31201XS 10-Inch Magni Elite Slate G-Netbook $349.99
The first observation is that the machines are almost all identically priced at $349.99. MSI Wind might be the company driving price down at the moment with HP and especially Samsung perhaps trying to differentiate themselves on build quality. The machines have almost all the same specifications with the exception of Archos having a 3 cell battery and HP only a 60GB hard drive compared to 160GB in all the other devices. Also interesting to note that on Amazon UK only 2 of the 8 machines are available for sale!
It will be interesting to see how far (if at all) price falls in the next year and what improvement in specification we will see. Two major changes are already evident in the market with Asus bring out a 1000HE containing the Intel Atom N280 processor and Samsung moving up to 12 inch screens with the NC20. This move is also interesting as Samsung have switched to VIA for their processor instead of Intel. I will run an update of this post in 3 months and we can see what the market looks like then
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/07/eric-schmidt-tells-charlie-rose-google-is-unlikely-to-buy-twitter-and-wants-to-turn-phones-into-tvs/
t must be Google Week on Charlie Rose. Thursday, Rose interviewed product chief Marissa Mayer, and last night he had an hour-long conversation with CEO Eric Schmidt (embedded here, with a full transcript below). The wide-ranging interview touches upon everything from Google’s origins and how it fell upon its advertising business model by accident to how search and other technologies will change society over the next twenty years.
Asked if Google wants to buy Twitter, Schmdit responded: “We’re unlikely to buy anything in the short term partly because I think prices are still high.”
And echoing Mayer’s earlier enthusiasm for all things mobile, Schmidt painted a picture of Android-powered devices turning into TVs (and disrupting the current TV model):
It’s worth noting, by the way, that if you imagine the power of these mobile devices over a five or 10 year period, they must be possible to do almost everything that we do today with other means . . . . It should be possible to watch television and watch your show routinely on these devices, in very high quality. The technology is just getting there. And when that occurs, it’s a different experience because it’s a personal experience. When I turn on the television, it shows the same shows that I saw yesterday and I watch them and it doesn’t know that I watched them yesterday. What a foolish television. Why is it not smarter?
Below is the full transcript, with sections bolded for emphasis (I particularly love the story about how Bill Joy uses search to find new investment opportunities)
t must be Google Week on Charlie Rose. Thursday, Rose interviewed product chief Marissa Mayer, and last night he had an hour-long conversation with CEO Eric Schmidt (embedded here, with a full transcript below). The wide-ranging interview touches upon everything from Google’s origins and how it fell upon its advertising business model by accident to how search and other technologies will change society over the next twenty years.
Asked if Google wants to buy Twitter, Schmdit responded: “We’re unlikely to buy anything in the short term partly because I think prices are still high.”
And echoing Mayer’s earlier enthusiasm for all things mobile, Schmidt painted a picture of Android-powered devices turning into TVs (and disrupting the current TV model):
It’s worth noting, by the way, that if you imagine the power of these mobile devices over a five or 10 year period, they must be possible to do almost everything that we do today with other means . . . . It should be possible to watch television and watch your show routinely on these devices, in very high quality. The technology is just getting there. And when that occurs, it’s a different experience because it’s a personal experience. When I turn on the television, it shows the same shows that I saw yesterday and I watch them and it doesn’t know that I watched them yesterday. What a foolish television. Why is it not smarter?
Below is the full transcript, with sections bolded for emphasis (I particularly love the story about how Bill Joy uses search to find new investment opportunities)
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Monday March 2, 2009 1:56 PM CST - By: Michael Kwan
Click to ZoomAbout a year ago, we heard about the ambitions of creating the second-generation OLPC with dual touchscreen displays. The configuration got you to open the little laptop like a book, removing the physical keyboard altogether. It was certainly a novel concept, but it seems like the idea could be gaining some ground with Asus.
Over at CeBIT, Asus has revealed one of their latest creations: a new laptop that gets rid of the keyboard, opting instead for dual multitouch displays. This is almost exactly like the OLPC2, except it's from a major laptop manufacturer.
The Dual Panel laptop, as it's being called, allows for the use of a resizable virtual keyboard and touchpad, sort of like what you get on the iPhone only a lot bigger and with two screens. Holding the laptop horizontally, you could really use it like an e-book reader, flipping through the pages as if they were almost real.
Not surprisingly, there is no official confirmation from Asus that the company will actually pursue this design in a consumer product, but the concept is certainly an interesting one. Stay tuned, because netbooks just got a whole lot of new life.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090224/tecnology/ctech_us_microsoft
Microsoft says no new cost cuts, shares hit 11-year low
BOSTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp outlined plans to offset revenue declines as the PC market shifts to low-cost netbooks, but it failed to announce more cost cuts, sending its shares to an 11-year low.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told an analysts' meeting in New York on Tuesday that Microsoft will offer robust versions of its yet-to-be-released Windows 7 operating software for netbooks, as the company looks to boost revenue from these hot-selling, low-cost computers.
But Microsoft shares fell more than 3 percent after Ballmer quashed the hopes of some investors for accelerated cost cuts. Microsoft had announced plans to lay off 5,000 workers on January 22 as part of a plan to save $1.5 billion in annual costs.
"I don't think it makes sense for us to come back and say, 'Could we take out another $2 billion in costs?'" Ballmer said at the analysts' meeting.
Avian Securities Jeff Gaggin said investors were disappointed with Ballmer's decision to hold off on further cost cutting measures, and that he chose not to reassure them that the board will maintain the company's current dividend.
"There was a lot left to interpretation," Gaggin said.
Microsoft, which a month ago blamed netbooks for weaker-than-expected quarterly profits, said it is planning to ship a low-end version of Windows 7 for netbooks, and make it easy for users to upgrade to more expensive editions.
"We will have high market share on netbooks," Ballmer said as he painted a grim outlook for the economy.
"I often think of this as an economic reset. It's not a recession from which you recover," he added.
Ballmer also said he still wants to team up with Yahoo Inc to compete against Internet search giant Google Inc, though he is not interested in buying Yahoo.
He said he hopes to discuss a possible search partnership with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, and added that he expects Google to start competing with the Windows operating system by offering a version of its Android operating system for laptop computers.
Google launched Android last year as an operating system for smart phones.
NETBOOK TREND
Microsoft had partly blamed last quarter's profit shortfall on a shift in personal computer sales to netbooks from full-featured machines.
Analysts say the low pricing of netbook software is hurting Windows profits, and estimate that Microsoft only reaps about half the revenue from PC makers for each netbook sold, compared to what it earns on sales of more expensive laptops.
Still, Ballmer said he disagreed that growing netbook sales represent "downside" for his company.
Microsoft's goal is to boost its average revenue per netbook by persuading users to pay to upgrade low-end versions of the software to gain features included with more expensive ones in full-featured PCs.
The software maker will encourage that by limiting the functionality of low-end versions of the new Windows 7. As an example, Ballmer said Microsoft will restrict the number of programs that a user can run at once.
Netbook sales took off last year as the economy weakened, making their low pricing of $200 to $400 more attractive to consumers. Ballmer said he expects netbook sales to continue to grow as cash-strapped buyers avoid big-ticket, discretionary purchases.
"There is certainly going to be an economic effect on PC sales," he said. "We cannot control it. It will affect our revenue."
Most netbooks are now shipped with a stripped down copy of an older generation of Microsoft's operating system, Windows XP, because those machines don't have the computing resources needed to run Windows Vista, the latest version.
Cross Research analyst Richard Williams estimates that Microsoft gets about $35 for each netbook sold with Windows.
Analysts expect Windows 7 to be released before this year's holiday shopping season. Microsoft has declined to give a specific release date, only saying it will be out by January 2010.
Microsoft shares fell 33 cents to $16.88, after hitting an 11-year low of $16.36.
Microsoft says no new cost cuts, shares hit 11-year low
BOSTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp outlined plans to offset revenue declines as the PC market shifts to low-cost netbooks, but it failed to announce more cost cuts, sending its shares to an 11-year low.
Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told an analysts' meeting in New York on Tuesday that Microsoft will offer robust versions of its yet-to-be-released Windows 7 operating software for netbooks, as the company looks to boost revenue from these hot-selling, low-cost computers.
But Microsoft shares fell more than 3 percent after Ballmer quashed the hopes of some investors for accelerated cost cuts. Microsoft had announced plans to lay off 5,000 workers on January 22 as part of a plan to save $1.5 billion in annual costs.
"I don't think it makes sense for us to come back and say, 'Could we take out another $2 billion in costs?'" Ballmer said at the analysts' meeting.
Avian Securities Jeff Gaggin said investors were disappointed with Ballmer's decision to hold off on further cost cutting measures, and that he chose not to reassure them that the board will maintain the company's current dividend.
"There was a lot left to interpretation," Gaggin said.
Microsoft, which a month ago blamed netbooks for weaker-than-expected quarterly profits, said it is planning to ship a low-end version of Windows 7 for netbooks, and make it easy for users to upgrade to more expensive editions.
"We will have high market share on netbooks," Ballmer said as he painted a grim outlook for the economy.
"I often think of this as an economic reset. It's not a recession from which you recover," he added.
Ballmer also said he still wants to team up with Yahoo Inc to compete against Internet search giant Google Inc, though he is not interested in buying Yahoo.
He said he hopes to discuss a possible search partnership with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, and added that he expects Google to start competing with the Windows operating system by offering a version of its Android operating system for laptop computers.
Google launched Android last year as an operating system for smart phones.
NETBOOK TREND
Microsoft had partly blamed last quarter's profit shortfall on a shift in personal computer sales to netbooks from full-featured machines.
Analysts say the low pricing of netbook software is hurting Windows profits, and estimate that Microsoft only reaps about half the revenue from PC makers for each netbook sold, compared to what it earns on sales of more expensive laptops.
Still, Ballmer said he disagreed that growing netbook sales represent "downside" for his company.
Microsoft's goal is to boost its average revenue per netbook by persuading users to pay to upgrade low-end versions of the software to gain features included with more expensive ones in full-featured PCs.
The software maker will encourage that by limiting the functionality of low-end versions of the new Windows 7. As an example, Ballmer said Microsoft will restrict the number of programs that a user can run at once.
Netbook sales took off last year as the economy weakened, making their low pricing of $200 to $400 more attractive to consumers. Ballmer said he expects netbook sales to continue to grow as cash-strapped buyers avoid big-ticket, discretionary purchases.
"There is certainly going to be an economic effect on PC sales," he said. "We cannot control it. It will affect our revenue."
Most netbooks are now shipped with a stripped down copy of an older generation of Microsoft's operating system, Windows XP, because those machines don't have the computing resources needed to run Windows Vista, the latest version.
Cross Research analyst Richard Williams estimates that Microsoft gets about $35 for each netbook sold with Windows.
Analysts expect Windows 7 to be released before this year's holiday shopping season. Microsoft has declined to give a specific release date, only saying it will be out by January 2010.
Microsoft shares fell 33 cents to $16.88, after hitting an 11-year low of $16.36.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
PC Technology Market
PC industry facing 'unprecedented' decline due to weak global economy
By Luann Lasalle, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL - The weak global economy is causing the worst decline ever in the personal computer industry, although demand for mini-notebooks will keep the market from "falling apart" in 2009, a new forecast says.
Market researcher Gartner Inc. said Monday that PC shipments will decline almost 12 per cent this year, with a total of 257 million to be shipped worldwide, the biggest drop in PC history.
"It's an unprecedented drop, much deeper than in 2001," Gartner research director George Shiffler said of the recession that hit the technology sector earlier this decade after the dot-com bubble burst.
He said mini-notebooks, also called netbooks that are smaller and less expensive than laptops, will prop up the PC market.
"They're big enough to keep the market from falling apart, but not big enough to keep it from going down," Shiffler said from San Jose, Calif.
Shipments worldwide of mini-notebooks are expected to total 21 million units in 2009, or about eight per cent of the total PC market, according to Gartner, an information technology research firm headquartered in Stamford, Conn.
Last year, 11.7 million mini-notebooks were shipped globally.
Netbooks are less powerful than current laptops and run between US$200 to US$500 and are designed for basic tasks like email and surfing the Internet.
Even still, even the most basic of today's personal computers have abilities that are far beyond what was available on the market when IBM Corp. brought out its original Personal Computer in 1981.
IBM's machine, the first to use an operating system from Microsoft, essentially thrust computers for individual users into the business world and, in the process, broadened the appeal for computing beyond the hobby and education markets pioneered by Apple, Commodore and Tandy-Radio Shack.
The PC is now considered a necessary tool for businesses and student, and a source of entertainment for many others, but many markets have long ago become saturated.
The current drop in demand for PCs will come from both emerging and mature markets worldwide, Shiffler said, adding that consumers and businesses will take longer to replace PCs in the economic downturn.
"We do think that going forward the fact that the global economy is continuing to deteriorate is going to depress demand," he said. "I don't see things really get kind of cooking, as it were, until the first half of next year."
Shiffler said the decline is causing a ripple effect on other companies that make PC hardware and software and is tough on computer chip makers and on makers of chip equipment.
Gartner's report follows thousands of job cuts announced by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC) and other companies that depend on sales of PC hardware and software.
Dell Inc. (Nasdaq:DELL), the second-largest computer maker behind Hewlett -Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ), has announced it plans to cut US$4 billion in annual costs by the end of its 2011 financial year, $1 billion more than previously planned. It said the rising popularity of netbooks pushed revenue from consumers down seven per cent.
Shiffler said the coming release of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, a successor to Vista, could help the computer industry rebound.
"Depending when Windows 7 gets released, we're probably talking the big effects showing up a year later which would put it toward the end of 2010."
Analyst Darin Stahl said the "mom and pop shops, the PC support folks, the geek squads of the world" will benefit from the PC industry's decline.
"The only winners in this space are going to be the second-hand, used computing market for both enterprise and consumers," said Stahl, lead analyst at Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont.
"I think those guys or those businesses are going to see a bit of an uptick as people hold on to this equipment a little longer," Stahl said.
Stock analyst Nick Agostino said even incentives may not even get consumers to replace their computers sooner.
"To me, it boils down to necessity," said Agostino of Toronto-based Research Capital Corp.
"If the one that you have at home is still adequate, that's not necessarily wise spending in these economic times. On the other hand, if you've got zero PC or if that thing is beyond repair and is just busted and you need that PC, then the incentive is just the added bonus."
When the economy turns around, there will be a pent-up demand for PCs and suddenly people will begin buying them again, he said.
LIKE IT? LET OTHERS KNOW
By Luann Lasalle, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL - The weak global economy is causing the worst decline ever in the personal computer industry, although demand for mini-notebooks will keep the market from "falling apart" in 2009, a new forecast says.
Market researcher Gartner Inc. said Monday that PC shipments will decline almost 12 per cent this year, with a total of 257 million to be shipped worldwide, the biggest drop in PC history.
"It's an unprecedented drop, much deeper than in 2001," Gartner research director George Shiffler said of the recession that hit the technology sector earlier this decade after the dot-com bubble burst.
He said mini-notebooks, also called netbooks that are smaller and less expensive than laptops, will prop up the PC market.
"They're big enough to keep the market from falling apart, but not big enough to keep it from going down," Shiffler said from San Jose, Calif.
Shipments worldwide of mini-notebooks are expected to total 21 million units in 2009, or about eight per cent of the total PC market, according to Gartner, an information technology research firm headquartered in Stamford, Conn.
Last year, 11.7 million mini-notebooks were shipped globally.
Netbooks are less powerful than current laptops and run between US$200 to US$500 and are designed for basic tasks like email and surfing the Internet.
Even still, even the most basic of today's personal computers have abilities that are far beyond what was available on the market when IBM Corp. brought out its original Personal Computer in 1981.
IBM's machine, the first to use an operating system from Microsoft, essentially thrust computers for individual users into the business world and, in the process, broadened the appeal for computing beyond the hobby and education markets pioneered by Apple, Commodore and Tandy-Radio Shack.
The PC is now considered a necessary tool for businesses and student, and a source of entertainment for many others, but many markets have long ago become saturated.
The current drop in demand for PCs will come from both emerging and mature markets worldwide, Shiffler said, adding that consumers and businesses will take longer to replace PCs in the economic downturn.
"We do think that going forward the fact that the global economy is continuing to deteriorate is going to depress demand," he said. "I don't see things really get kind of cooking, as it were, until the first half of next year."
Shiffler said the decline is causing a ripple effect on other companies that make PC hardware and software and is tough on computer chip makers and on makers of chip equipment.
Gartner's report follows thousands of job cuts announced by Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT), Intel Corp. (Nasdaq:INTC) and other companies that depend on sales of PC hardware and software.
Dell Inc. (Nasdaq:DELL), the second-largest computer maker behind Hewlett -Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ), has announced it plans to cut US$4 billion in annual costs by the end of its 2011 financial year, $1 billion more than previously planned. It said the rising popularity of netbooks pushed revenue from consumers down seven per cent.
Shiffler said the coming release of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, a successor to Vista, could help the computer industry rebound.
"Depending when Windows 7 gets released, we're probably talking the big effects showing up a year later which would put it toward the end of 2010."
Analyst Darin Stahl said the "mom and pop shops, the PC support folks, the geek squads of the world" will benefit from the PC industry's decline.
"The only winners in this space are going to be the second-hand, used computing market for both enterprise and consumers," said Stahl, lead analyst at Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont.
"I think those guys or those businesses are going to see a bit of an uptick as people hold on to this equipment a little longer," Stahl said.
Stock analyst Nick Agostino said even incentives may not even get consumers to replace their computers sooner.
"To me, it boils down to necessity," said Agostino of Toronto-based Research Capital Corp.
"If the one that you have at home is still adequate, that's not necessarily wise spending in these economic times. On the other hand, if you've got zero PC or if that thing is beyond repair and is just busted and you need that PC, then the incentive is just the added bonus."
When the economy turns around, there will be a pent-up demand for PCs and suddenly people will begin buying them again, he said.
LIKE IT? LET OTHERS KNOW
Linux Touch Screen
http://www.h-online.com/open/Touch-Book-Linux-based-touch-screen-device-announced--/news/112755
Touch Book: Linux based touch screen device announced
The Touch Book, with detachable screen
ZoomThe Touch Book, with detachable screen
Always Innovating have announced a new ARM based touch screen/tablet computer, which they plan to start shipping the US in May/June with a price starting at $299. The Touch Book will come with the Touch Book OS, based on the Angström Linux distribution. The company says the Touch Book is not limited to their OS and that it's possible to "install many operating systems on the device, including Google Android, Ubuntu, Angstrom, and Windows CE, though we would not recommend the latter."
The Touch Book motherboard is based on the Beagle Board and the schematics for it have been released under the GPL by Always Innovating. With an 8.9" diagonal 1024 by 600 resolution touch screen and an ability to play up to 720p video content, the Touch Book is being sold as a companion to, rather than a replacement for, a user's main machine.
The Touch Book sports a number of unique features in a small device. The keyboard is detachable, allowing the device to used as just a tablet, and the back of the tablet is magnetic, letting a user stick the device to a fridge or other metallic surface. The device weighs less than two pounds, but offers a ten to fifteen hour battery life. However, there is a catch; the two parts of the Touch Book, the tablet and the keyboard, have their own separate batteries. The tablet alone has 3 to 5 hours battery life, with the keyboard battery extending that to the ten to fifteen hours.
Another interesting design feature is the inclusion of internal USB ports. These allow readily available 3G dongles, memory sticks and other USB devices to be fitted within the unit, avoiding the problem of accidental disconnections. The quiet and cool design doesn't need a cooling fan due to its use of the low power OMAP3 ARM processor from Texas Instruments.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
OLPC On Twitter Postings
Rwanda currently has 10,000 XO laptops. Some students have found that Kigali's airport has Free Wifi: http://tr.im/gJLx
New England QB, Tom Brady will be donating 1000 machines to 31 Boys and Girls clubs throughout New England http://tr.im/gCCw
Have you seen the OLPC+Sugar Manual by Floss Manuals? It's excellent http://tr.im/gAku
An XO user set up a public server that allows you to try out some of the XO's collaboration and sharing features. http://tinyurl.com
Look to the OLPC Activities Wiki to install additional software to your XO Laptop http://wiki.laptop.org/go/A...
Check out OLPC+Google+UNICEF has cooked up www.ourstories.org
OLPC orders surge as Peru requests 260,000 XOs http://tinyurl.com/237yeq
OLPC is the most subscribe non-profit channel on YouTube this month. Check out the new Negroponte video http://tinyurl.com
Now you can give an XO Laptop on Facebook http://apps.facebook.com/ca...
New England QB, Tom Brady will be donating 1000 machines to 31 Boys and Girls clubs throughout New England http://tr.im/gCCw
Have you seen the OLPC+Sugar Manual by Floss Manuals? It's excellent http://tr.im/gAku
An XO user set up a public server that allows you to try out some of the XO's collaboration and sharing features. http://tinyurl.com
Look to the OLPC Activities Wiki to install additional software to your XO Laptop http://wiki.laptop.org/go/A...
Check out OLPC+Google+UNICEF has cooked up www.ourstories.org
OLPC orders surge as Peru requests 260,000 XOs http://tinyurl.com/237yeq
OLPC is the most subscribe non-profit channel on YouTube this month. Check out the new Negroponte video http://tinyurl.com
Now you can give an XO Laptop on Facebook http://apps.facebook.com/ca...
Price Drop on NetBooks
9-inch netbooks seeing sharp price declines
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/41518/145/
By Wolfgang Gruener
Monday, February 23, 2009 13:43
Chicago (IL) – If you have thought about buying a netbook and are simply buying for a simple Internet access device, there may be some interesting deals out there.
According to a report published by Digitimes, notebook vendors are dropping the prices of their 8.9” netbooks in an effort to clear their inventory. SSD versions are apparently seeing the most significant declines , which is said to be due to more hard drive options in netbooks and the simple fact that SSDs are still way too expensive anyway and may make little sense for many buyers.
A quick check in the North American market reveals that Acer’s Aspire One, the best-selling netbook at this time, can be purchased for about $250 with an 8 GB SSD, while the Asus EeePC 900 with a 16 GB SSD is available for about $320 and HP’s Mini with an 8 GB SSD for about $330. Further price drops are expected.
If you are looking for a netbook with an SSD, you can generally expect a device that is lighter than the hard drive version and generates notably less heat. Battery time should also be positively impacted in most cases. However, buyers should be aware that 8 GB may be a bit tight as, for example, HP’s Mini with Windows XP provides only 2 GB of remaining storage space (HP provides an extra 2 GB USB stick that can be installed flush into the casing free of charge.) Buyers of 8 GB netbooks should consider buying an additional memory card to act as their main mass storage device.
It should also be noted that while these 8.9” and 9” netbooks are compact and light, their screen resolution is not high enough to comfortable view websites that are designed for screen resolutions of a 1024 pixel width or more. Netbook vendors have been saying for a while that the segment may be moving towards 10.1” netbooks as a result.
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/41518/145/
By Wolfgang Gruener
Monday, February 23, 2009 13:43
Chicago (IL) – If you have thought about buying a netbook and are simply buying for a simple Internet access device, there may be some interesting deals out there.
According to a report published by Digitimes, notebook vendors are dropping the prices of their 8.9” netbooks in an effort to clear their inventory. SSD versions are apparently seeing the most significant declines , which is said to be due to more hard drive options in netbooks and the simple fact that SSDs are still way too expensive anyway and may make little sense for many buyers.
A quick check in the North American market reveals that Acer’s Aspire One, the best-selling netbook at this time, can be purchased for about $250 with an 8 GB SSD, while the Asus EeePC 900 with a 16 GB SSD is available for about $320 and HP’s Mini with an 8 GB SSD for about $330. Further price drops are expected.
If you are looking for a netbook with an SSD, you can generally expect a device that is lighter than the hard drive version and generates notably less heat. Battery time should also be positively impacted in most cases. However, buyers should be aware that 8 GB may be a bit tight as, for example, HP’s Mini with Windows XP provides only 2 GB of remaining storage space (HP provides an extra 2 GB USB stick that can be installed flush into the casing free of charge.) Buyers of 8 GB netbooks should consider buying an additional memory card to act as their main mass storage device.
It should also be noted that while these 8.9” and 9” netbooks are compact and light, their screen resolution is not high enough to comfortable view websites that are designed for screen resolutions of a 1024 pixel width or more. Netbook vendors have been saying for a while that the segment may be moving towards 10.1” netbooks as a result.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
E Text Books on Laptops
Morning Edition, February 23, 2009 ·
The college textbook is on track to becoming a relic of the paper-and-ink era. On campuses around the country, professors and students are selecting digital versions of books that can be read off of a computer screen.
Most college students are used to going online for music, videos and news — so why not textbooks?
One college in rural Missouri is the first trying to go entirely book-free.
At Northwest Missouri State, all students are issued a laptop when they arrive on campus. Just before his business finance class begins, junior Kevin Green takes out his laptop and clicks on his textbook.
"I've read it some. I find it easy to just go through it as [the instructor] discusses it in class and highlight things as he brings them up," Green says.
Green is one of 500 students testing out digital textbooks this semester. And they're wondering: How will the e-books change the way they study?
Freshman Lindsey Rheuport is just downloading her text for intercultural communications.
"I like having the book in front of me, so I can like flip back and forth really fast and, like, put Post-it notes up in the corners of important pages," she says.
Changing With Students
Some e-textbooks are just on-screen versions of the bound copies. But the newest books are interactive — you can search, mark pages, highlight, and cut and paste passages. You can share notes in a kind of social network with the rest of your class — or even click on a video.
The new generation of textbooks is trying to be in tune with the way students learn in the age of Wikipedia and YouTube. And textbook writers will have to keep up, says Frank Lyman of CourseSmart, a digital distributor that's working with nine major publishers.
"Now what you're looking for in an author is a Steven Spielberg. You're looking for somebody who can be the producer, have the vision for what the learning experience should be," he says.
Not everyone is ready to relinquish the heavy old tomes. Northwest Missouri State President Dean Hubbard says when he discussed the plan to move away from physical books on campus, some professors had tears in their eyes.
"And the philosophy professor talked about books that were so important to him that he took them and had them leather-bound," Hubbard says. "But then he ended up saying, 'This is the way things are going, and we're going to go with it.'"
Worries About College Costs
Professors across the country are assigning e-books. Eighteen percent of college students have purchased one, according to the National Association of College Stores. But Northwest Missouri State is in a unique position to go entirely digital: In addition to the laptops, students rent all their textbooks from the college. So when a comprehensive selection became available digitally, Hubbard decided to make the switch.
"The timing is just right. Everybody is anxious about the cost of higher education going up," he says.
College textbooks are part of that. One book can cost upward of $200. E-book versions cost about half that.
Some students still need convincing, though. About half at this school say they still prefer physical textbooks.
But human resources instructor Allison Strong says she's already noticing that students are more likely to bring their laptops than textbooks to class.
"I just remind them again, you know, review this chapter, probably more so than I did so before," she says, "because I think they're actually going to read it more this time."
As students trade their books for laptops, publishers and academics alike are watching the transition, which could mean profound changes for higher education.
Sylvia Maria Gross reports for member station KCUR in Kansas City, Mo.
The college textbook is on track to becoming a relic of the paper-and-ink era. On campuses around the country, professors and students are selecting digital versions of books that can be read off of a computer screen.
Most college students are used to going online for music, videos and news — so why not textbooks?
One college in rural Missouri is the first trying to go entirely book-free.
At Northwest Missouri State, all students are issued a laptop when they arrive on campus. Just before his business finance class begins, junior Kevin Green takes out his laptop and clicks on his textbook.
"I've read it some. I find it easy to just go through it as [the instructor] discusses it in class and highlight things as he brings them up," Green says.
Green is one of 500 students testing out digital textbooks this semester. And they're wondering: How will the e-books change the way they study?
Freshman Lindsey Rheuport is just downloading her text for intercultural communications.
"I like having the book in front of me, so I can like flip back and forth really fast and, like, put Post-it notes up in the corners of important pages," she says.
Changing With Students
Some e-textbooks are just on-screen versions of the bound copies. But the newest books are interactive — you can search, mark pages, highlight, and cut and paste passages. You can share notes in a kind of social network with the rest of your class — or even click on a video.
The new generation of textbooks is trying to be in tune with the way students learn in the age of Wikipedia and YouTube. And textbook writers will have to keep up, says Frank Lyman of CourseSmart, a digital distributor that's working with nine major publishers.
"Now what you're looking for in an author is a Steven Spielberg. You're looking for somebody who can be the producer, have the vision for what the learning experience should be," he says.
Not everyone is ready to relinquish the heavy old tomes. Northwest Missouri State President Dean Hubbard says when he discussed the plan to move away from physical books on campus, some professors had tears in their eyes.
"And the philosophy professor talked about books that were so important to him that he took them and had them leather-bound," Hubbard says. "But then he ended up saying, 'This is the way things are going, and we're going to go with it.'"
Worries About College Costs
Professors across the country are assigning e-books. Eighteen percent of college students have purchased one, according to the National Association of College Stores. But Northwest Missouri State is in a unique position to go entirely digital: In addition to the laptops, students rent all their textbooks from the college. So when a comprehensive selection became available digitally, Hubbard decided to make the switch.
"The timing is just right. Everybody is anxious about the cost of higher education going up," he says.
College textbooks are part of that. One book can cost upward of $200. E-book versions cost about half that.
Some students still need convincing, though. About half at this school say they still prefer physical textbooks.
But human resources instructor Allison Strong says she's already noticing that students are more likely to bring their laptops than textbooks to class.
"I just remind them again, you know, review this chapter, probably more so than I did so before," she says, "because I think they're actually going to read it more this time."
As students trade their books for laptops, publishers and academics alike are watching the transition, which could mean profound changes for higher education.
Sylvia Maria Gross reports for member station KCUR in Kansas City, Mo.
A Little Marvell Plugs Sub-Netbook Gap
25 February 2009
A Little Marvell Plugs Sub-Netbook Gap
As I've been telling anyone who would listen, one of the key recent trends has been the "race to the bottom" in terms of pricing for computer systems. The only real winner here (aside from the end-user) is open source - proprietary systems cannot cut prices enough, and are rarely flexible enough to allow the kind of experimentation that is necessary at this end of the market.
Here's another great example of the kind of thing I have in mind:
Can a computer get any smaller and cheaper than a netbook? Marvell Technology Group Ltd. thinks so.
The Silicon Valley chip maker is trying to create a new category of inexpensive, energy-efficient devices it calls "plug computers," for which it would supply the integrated processors.
Strongly resembling those vacation timers that turn on your lights at night to ward off potential robbers, a plug computer is more of a home networking gadget that transforms external hard drives or USB thumb drives into full network-attached storage (NAS) devices.
Aside from the form-factor, the other thing of note is the expected price for these GNU/Linux-based systems:
Marvell has already announced a handful of other resellers that plan to build plug computers. But it hopes to attract far more, so that it can eventually price its SheevaPlug chips low enough for vendors to profitably sell plug computers for as little as $49, Mukhopadhyay said.
At first sight, it's not clear why anyone would want one of these extremely small computers; but at prices around $50 you can bet all kinds of unexpected uses will start popping up. It's not hard to imagine a day when a house or office is full of dozens of tiny, low-cost and low-energy GNU/Linux-based devices, all talking to each other and other systems across the Net. Juding be the speed at which netbooks have caught on, it's probably closer than we think.
A Little Marvell Plugs Sub-Netbook Gap
As I've been telling anyone who would listen, one of the key recent trends has been the "race to the bottom" in terms of pricing for computer systems. The only real winner here (aside from the end-user) is open source - proprietary systems cannot cut prices enough, and are rarely flexible enough to allow the kind of experimentation that is necessary at this end of the market.
Here's another great example of the kind of thing I have in mind:
Can a computer get any smaller and cheaper than a netbook? Marvell Technology Group Ltd. thinks so.
The Silicon Valley chip maker is trying to create a new category of inexpensive, energy-efficient devices it calls "plug computers," for which it would supply the integrated processors.
Strongly resembling those vacation timers that turn on your lights at night to ward off potential robbers, a plug computer is more of a home networking gadget that transforms external hard drives or USB thumb drives into full network-attached storage (NAS) devices.
Aside from the form-factor, the other thing of note is the expected price for these GNU/Linux-based systems:
Marvell has already announced a handful of other resellers that plan to build plug computers. But it hopes to attract far more, so that it can eventually price its SheevaPlug chips low enough for vendors to profitably sell plug computers for as little as $49, Mukhopadhyay said.
At first sight, it's not clear why anyone would want one of these extremely small computers; but at prices around $50 you can bet all kinds of unexpected uses will start popping up. It's not hard to imagine a day when a house or office is full of dozens of tiny, low-cost and low-energy GNU/Linux-based devices, all talking to each other and other systems across the Net. Juding be the speed at which netbooks have caught on, it's probably closer than we think.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Netbooks Become Ubiquitous and Linux Becomes Mainstream
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
http://ever-increasing-entropy.blogspot.com/2009/02/netbooks-become-ubiquitous-and-linux.html
Netbooks Become Ubiquitous and Linux Becomes Mainstream
Last Tuesday I took my ferret Chin Soon to her vet. While I was waiting I pulled my Sylvania g Netbook Meso out of its case to get some writing done. When the vet came in she commented on my "cute little netbook" and asked me if it was an Acer. Hers, it turns out, is an Acer and mine looks quite similar.
I read the reviews last year where people claimed that netbooks looked more like portable DVD players than computers. Well... nobody has mistaken mine for a DVD player. Lots of people recognize it as a netbook. I keep running into more and more people, both in the real world and online who have taken the plunge and bought themselves a little netbook. Many, like my ferrets' vet, are intelligent, professional people but are by no means technology professionals or even particularly technically inclined.
16 million netbooks have sold so far with growth estimated at 60% per year. I expect it could be higher that that. Netbooks are the least expensive new computers on the market in what is now a seriously troubled worldwide economy. Cool new technologies tend to snowball when they catch on. I've found I can do everything with my netbook that I could do with a conventional PC. Others will discover the same. Netbooks probably won't be as ubiquitous as cell phones but they will turn up in more and more places with more and more ordinary, non technical users.
Yes, the vet's Acer runs Windows. While the vast majority of new netbooks will be sold with either Windows XP or Windows 7, a substantial minority will continue to be preloaded with Linux. Millions of people have been introduced to Linux through netbooks and are satisfied with it. Educated consumers who learn that Linux, which requires fewer system resources, will run faster and comes with a wide variety of software preinstalled will choose Linux.
Despite the posts by various so-called tech journalists who always cheerlead for Microsoft claiming that Windows has "kicked Linux to the curb" or "crushed" Linux on netbooks, Microsoft's own estimate places Linux at 30% of current market share. Asustek's Samson Hu, quoted in the same Bloomberg article, places Linux on 30-40% of all EeePCs currently sold and expects Linux to maintain a 30% market share. Acer spokesman Henry Wang expects 20% of his Aspire One models to ship with Linux this year.
There were one million netbooks sold in 2007, all running Linux. There were 15 million sold last year. Assuming that Microsoft has no reason to deflate its own sales figures or inflate Linux numbers then the 30% figure becomes a good, conservative estimate of Linux netbook market share in 2008. That would make 4.2 million more Linux machines sold. Estimates for 2010 are as high as 29 million units. I've seen similar estimates for 2009. Let's assume the total market share for Linux across the industry will fall somewhere between the two leaders, around 25%. That would mean 14.5 million more new preloaded Linux boxes over the next two years, putting the total number since the summer of 2007 at 19.7 million.
I'm sure the Windows cheerleading section will be happy to point out that three times that number will run a Microsoft operating system and this will be touted as another great victory for Windows. Of course, these are the same folks who just a year ago were claiming Linux was insignificant in the consumer market with a less than one percent share of preloaded systems. Tell me again how going from less than 1% to 30% in the fastest growing segment of the consumer PC market is a crushing defeat for Linux and a great victory for Microsoft. Sorry, but I don't see it.
Consumers now are aware they have a choice and Linux has gone mainstream. Oh, and speaking of things snowballing, how many of those 19.7 million Linux netbook users will also choose Linux for a desktop or conventional notebook? How many will show Linux to their friends, family, or neighbors? How many of those friends, family, or neighbors may then make the same Linux choice? The results for an OS that's been "crushed" or "kicked to the curb" might be quite impressive indeed.
http://ever-increasing-entropy.blogspot.com/2009/02/netbooks-become-ubiquitous-and-linux.html
Netbooks Become Ubiquitous and Linux Becomes Mainstream
Last Tuesday I took my ferret Chin Soon to her vet. While I was waiting I pulled my Sylvania g Netbook Meso out of its case to get some writing done. When the vet came in she commented on my "cute little netbook" and asked me if it was an Acer. Hers, it turns out, is an Acer and mine looks quite similar.
I read the reviews last year where people claimed that netbooks looked more like portable DVD players than computers. Well... nobody has mistaken mine for a DVD player. Lots of people recognize it as a netbook. I keep running into more and more people, both in the real world and online who have taken the plunge and bought themselves a little netbook. Many, like my ferrets' vet, are intelligent, professional people but are by no means technology professionals or even particularly technically inclined.
16 million netbooks have sold so far with growth estimated at 60% per year. I expect it could be higher that that. Netbooks are the least expensive new computers on the market in what is now a seriously troubled worldwide economy. Cool new technologies tend to snowball when they catch on. I've found I can do everything with my netbook that I could do with a conventional PC. Others will discover the same. Netbooks probably won't be as ubiquitous as cell phones but they will turn up in more and more places with more and more ordinary, non technical users.
Yes, the vet's Acer runs Windows. While the vast majority of new netbooks will be sold with either Windows XP or Windows 7, a substantial minority will continue to be preloaded with Linux. Millions of people have been introduced to Linux through netbooks and are satisfied with it. Educated consumers who learn that Linux, which requires fewer system resources, will run faster and comes with a wide variety of software preinstalled will choose Linux.
Despite the posts by various so-called tech journalists who always cheerlead for Microsoft claiming that Windows has "kicked Linux to the curb" or "crushed" Linux on netbooks, Microsoft's own estimate places Linux at 30% of current market share. Asustek's Samson Hu, quoted in the same Bloomberg article, places Linux on 30-40% of all EeePCs currently sold and expects Linux to maintain a 30% market share. Acer spokesman Henry Wang expects 20% of his Aspire One models to ship with Linux this year.
There were one million netbooks sold in 2007, all running Linux. There were 15 million sold last year. Assuming that Microsoft has no reason to deflate its own sales figures or inflate Linux numbers then the 30% figure becomes a good, conservative estimate of Linux netbook market share in 2008. That would make 4.2 million more Linux machines sold. Estimates for 2010 are as high as 29 million units. I've seen similar estimates for 2009. Let's assume the total market share for Linux across the industry will fall somewhere between the two leaders, around 25%. That would mean 14.5 million more new preloaded Linux boxes over the next two years, putting the total number since the summer of 2007 at 19.7 million.
I'm sure the Windows cheerleading section will be happy to point out that three times that number will run a Microsoft operating system and this will be touted as another great victory for Windows. Of course, these are the same folks who just a year ago were claiming Linux was insignificant in the consumer market with a less than one percent share of preloaded systems. Tell me again how going from less than 1% to 30% in the fastest growing segment of the consumer PC market is a crushing defeat for Linux and a great victory for Microsoft. Sorry, but I don't see it.
Consumers now are aware they have a choice and Linux has gone mainstream. Oh, and speaking of things snowballing, how many of those 19.7 million Linux netbook users will also choose Linux for a desktop or conventional notebook? How many will show Linux to their friends, family, or neighbors? How many of those friends, family, or neighbors may then make the same Linux choice? The results for an OS that's been "crushed" or "kicked to the curb" might be quite impressive indeed.
OLPC Next Laptop on Open Source Hardware
http://harkopen.com/news/olpcs-next-laptop-will-be-open-source-hardware-driven
Olpc's next laptop will be open source hardware driven
Submitted by madaerodog on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 17:32
Nicholas Negroponte announced the next generation of One laptop per child and the awesome part is that it will be open source. So kids go to our tutorials area to know how to solder :P
The XO-2 how it's named will be a dual screen device from what he heard and will cost about 75$, and will be using one of the screens as keyboard when needed.
"The first generation is a laptop that can be a book; the next generation will a book that can be a laptop," he says. "That's the switch.
"One important thing about the XO-2 is that we're going to do it as an open source hardware programme. The XO-1 was really designed as if we were Apple. The XO-2 will be designed as if we were Google - we'll want people to copy it. We'll make the constituent parts available. We'll try and get it out there using the exact opposite approach that we did with the XO-1.
"We had to do the XO this way because everybody said it couldn't be done. We purposely designed a special-purpose, award-winning museum of modern art piece. The next one will be different: everything from the dual display to the touch-sensitive, force-feedback, haptic keyboard will be available." The XO-2 came as a result of feedback from the XO-1.
Negroponte says he'd thought ebooks were the weakest argument for the OLPC, "but I found that for many people, the strongest case was books. Suddenly a village can have 10,000 books, which is more than we had in school."
So I hope they will do the same as with XO-1 , buy 2 receive one because this will definitely be on manny geeks table, including mine :)
Olpc's next laptop will be open source hardware driven
Submitted by madaerodog on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 17:32
Nicholas Negroponte announced the next generation of One laptop per child and the awesome part is that it will be open source. So kids go to our tutorials area to know how to solder :P
The XO-2 how it's named will be a dual screen device from what he heard and will cost about 75$, and will be using one of the screens as keyboard when needed.
"The first generation is a laptop that can be a book; the next generation will a book that can be a laptop," he says. "That's the switch.
"One important thing about the XO-2 is that we're going to do it as an open source hardware programme. The XO-1 was really designed as if we were Apple. The XO-2 will be designed as if we were Google - we'll want people to copy it. We'll make the constituent parts available. We'll try and get it out there using the exact opposite approach that we did with the XO-1.
"We had to do the XO this way because everybody said it couldn't be done. We purposely designed a special-purpose, award-winning museum of modern art piece. The next one will be different: everything from the dual display to the touch-sensitive, force-feedback, haptic keyboard will be available." The XO-2 came as a result of feedback from the XO-1.
Negroponte says he'd thought ebooks were the weakest argument for the OLPC, "but I found that for many people, the strongest case was books. Suddenly a village can have 10,000 books, which is more than we had in school."
So I hope they will do the same as with XO-1 , buy 2 receive one because this will definitely be on manny geeks table, including mine :)
Open Source Hardware
http://harkopen.com/
Open source hardware
Open source hardware refers to the free release of information about the hardware design, such as logic designs (using hardware description language), schematics, bill of materials and printed circuit board (PCB) layout data, often with the use of free open source software to drive the hardware.
Now lets explain some terms I've used in this definition :
- hardware description language (HDL) is any language from a class of computer languages and/or programming languages for formal description of electronic circuits. It can describe the circuit's operation, its design and organization, and tests to verify its operation by means of simulation.
- printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit assembly (PCA), also known as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA).
Licensing.
There are a lot of licenses used for open source hardware most of them being borrowed from the software world , some of them especially for hardware like TAPR Open Hardware License, and some of them created solely for a single project like the Balloon Open Hardware License for the Balloon Project.
Harkopen.com respects the licenses that the passionate technological people choose for their projects and promotes open source hardware as permissive as can be, if a project is here we want you the user to be able to reproduce it as accurately as possible and to be able to use it as you wish, to improve it, extend it and share it back with the community.
Vision.
For the humanity to evolve one step is for every member to have free access to knowledge, another step is to provide methods for individuals to store what they accomplish and discover so that the we do not make the same mistakes or reinvent same things, yet another step is to provide them with tools and means to collaborate and help one another.
Given the society that we live in, with the earth's current problems and limitation the humanity needs to overcome the current obstacles thru technology, sustainable , generally available, green technology. And open source hardware provides that platform to help change the world and make it a better place.
Harkopen.com was created with these premises and will try to provide the tools to offer access to information, provide storage of progress and new information, and become a collaborative tool for the human race, thru the Internet to evolve technological.
Open source hardware
Open source hardware refers to the free release of information about the hardware design, such as logic designs (using hardware description language), schematics, bill of materials and printed circuit board (PCB) layout data, often with the use of free open source software to drive the hardware.
Now lets explain some terms I've used in this definition :
- hardware description language (HDL) is any language from a class of computer languages and/or programming languages for formal description of electronic circuits. It can describe the circuit's operation, its design and organization, and tests to verify its operation by means of simulation.
- printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, or traces, etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board (PWB) or etched wiring board. A PCB populated with electronic components is a printed circuit assembly (PCA), also known as a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA).
Licensing.
There are a lot of licenses used for open source hardware most of them being borrowed from the software world , some of them especially for hardware like TAPR Open Hardware License, and some of them created solely for a single project like the Balloon Open Hardware License for the Balloon Project.
Harkopen.com respects the licenses that the passionate technological people choose for their projects and promotes open source hardware as permissive as can be, if a project is here we want you the user to be able to reproduce it as accurately as possible and to be able to use it as you wish, to improve it, extend it and share it back with the community.
Vision.
For the humanity to evolve one step is for every member to have free access to knowledge, another step is to provide methods for individuals to store what they accomplish and discover so that the we do not make the same mistakes or reinvent same things, yet another step is to provide them with tools and means to collaborate and help one another.
Given the society that we live in, with the earth's current problems and limitation the humanity needs to overcome the current obstacles thru technology, sustainable , generally available, green technology. And open source hardware provides that platform to help change the world and make it a better place.
Harkopen.com was created with these premises and will try to provide the tools to offer access to information, provide storage of progress and new information, and become a collaborative tool for the human race, thru the Internet to evolve technological.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Lost Laptops Artilcle
Adam Thierer
Lost Laptop Follies, Part 8: ATF Loses Laptops… and Guns!
http://techliberation.com/2008/09/18/lost-laptop-follies-part-8-atf-loses-laptops-and-guns/
And so the series continues. The Washington Post reports that the Department of Justice has just released “a scathing report” finding that over a 5-year period the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “lost dozens of weapons and hundreds of laptops that contained sensitive information.” The DOJ’s Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that 418 laptop computers and 76 weapons were lost. According to the report:
Yesterday’s report showed that ATF, a much smaller agency than the FBI, had lost proportionately many more firearms and laptops. “It is especially troubling that that ATF’s rate of loss for weapons was nearly double that of the FBI and [Drug Enforcement Administration], and that ATF did not even know whether most of its lost, stolen, or missing laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information,” Fine wrote. [...]
Many of the missing laptops contained sensitive or classified material, according to the report. ATF began installing encryption software only in May 2007. ATF did not know what information was on 398 of the 418 lost or stolen laptops. The report called the lack of such knowledge a “significant deficiency.” Of the 20 missing laptops for which information was available, ATF indicated that seven — 35 percent — held sensitive information. One missing laptop, for example, held “300-500 names with dates of birth and Social Security numbers of targets of criminal investigations, including their bank records with financial transactions.” Another held “employee evaluations, including Social Security numbers and other [personal information].” Neither laptop was encrypted.
The findings regarding lost weapons were equally troubling, if not a bit humorous:
Two weapons were subsequently used to commit crimes. In one incident, a gun stolen from the home of a special agent was fired through the window of another home. Ten firearms were “left in a public place.” One of them was left on an airplane, three in bathrooms, one in a shopping cart and two on the top of cars as ATF employees drove away. A laptop also fell off the top of a car as an agent drove off. Another weapon “fell into the water while an agent was fishing,” according to the report.
Now I know the private sector actors lose things too, but as I’ve pointed out before, if any of this happened in the private sector, trial lawyers would be salivating and lawsuits would be flying. By contrast, when the government loses personal information—information that his usually more sensitive than that which private actors collect—about the most that ever comes out of it is another report calling for “more accountability.” Few ever are actually held accountable (i.e., lose their jobs or get sued.)
The private sector's data can be just as sensitive as government data. NetworkWorld reported on June 5, 2008 Latest 'lost' laptop holds treasure-trove of unencrypted AT&T payroll data. According to the article an AT&T email stated: ""This is to alert you to the recent theft of an AT&T employee's laptop computer that contained AT&T management compensation information, including employee names, Social Security numbers, and, in most cases, salary and bonus information."
An AT&T manger is quoted as saying "It is pathetic that the largest telecom company in the world -- with more than 100 million customers -- doesn't encrypt basic personal information,"
The icing on the cake, the manager goes on to say ""I receive company internal e-mails reminding me to contact our legislators about relieving the company of the burdens of regulation," he says. "What happened here shows the company isn't ready to have those burdens lifted.
Lost Laptop Follies, Part 8: ATF Loses Laptops… and Guns!
http://techliberation.com/2008/09/18/lost-laptop-follies-part-8-atf-loses-laptops-and-guns/
And so the series continues. The Washington Post reports that the Department of Justice has just released “a scathing report” finding that over a 5-year period the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) “lost dozens of weapons and hundreds of laptops that contained sensitive information.” The DOJ’s Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found that 418 laptop computers and 76 weapons were lost. According to the report:
Yesterday’s report showed that ATF, a much smaller agency than the FBI, had lost proportionately many more firearms and laptops. “It is especially troubling that that ATF’s rate of loss for weapons was nearly double that of the FBI and [Drug Enforcement Administration], and that ATF did not even know whether most of its lost, stolen, or missing laptop computers contained sensitive or classified information,” Fine wrote. [...]
Many of the missing laptops contained sensitive or classified material, according to the report. ATF began installing encryption software only in May 2007. ATF did not know what information was on 398 of the 418 lost or stolen laptops. The report called the lack of such knowledge a “significant deficiency.” Of the 20 missing laptops for which information was available, ATF indicated that seven — 35 percent — held sensitive information. One missing laptop, for example, held “300-500 names with dates of birth and Social Security numbers of targets of criminal investigations, including their bank records with financial transactions.” Another held “employee evaluations, including Social Security numbers and other [personal information].” Neither laptop was encrypted.
The findings regarding lost weapons were equally troubling, if not a bit humorous:
Two weapons were subsequently used to commit crimes. In one incident, a gun stolen from the home of a special agent was fired through the window of another home. Ten firearms were “left in a public place.” One of them was left on an airplane, three in bathrooms, one in a shopping cart and two on the top of cars as ATF employees drove away. A laptop also fell off the top of a car as an agent drove off. Another weapon “fell into the water while an agent was fishing,” according to the report.
Now I know the private sector actors lose things too, but as I’ve pointed out before, if any of this happened in the private sector, trial lawyers would be salivating and lawsuits would be flying. By contrast, when the government loses personal information—information that his usually more sensitive than that which private actors collect—about the most that ever comes out of it is another report calling for “more accountability.” Few ever are actually held accountable (i.e., lose their jobs or get sued.)
The private sector's data can be just as sensitive as government data. NetworkWorld reported on June 5, 2008 Latest 'lost' laptop holds treasure-trove of unencrypted AT&T payroll data. According to the article an AT&T email stated: ""This is to alert you to the recent theft of an AT&T employee's laptop computer that contained AT&T management compensation information, including employee names, Social Security numbers, and, in most cases, salary and bonus information."
An AT&T manger is quoted as saying "It is pathetic that the largest telecom company in the world -- with more than 100 million customers -- doesn't encrypt basic personal information,"
The icing on the cake, the manager goes on to say ""I receive company internal e-mails reminding me to contact our legislators about relieving the company of the burdens of regulation," he says. "What happened here shows the company isn't ready to have those burdens lifted.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
http://manypossibilities.net/2009/02/a-modest-proposal-the-1-cent-sms/
http://manypossibilities.net/2009/02/a-modest-proposal-the-1-cent-sms/
ICASA - Stealing from AIDS Orphans »
A Modest Proposal - The 1 cent SMS
Published on 17 February 2009 in Telecom Policy.
I am filled today, as is often enough the case these days, with a sense of righteous indignation. In a meeting earlier today, Dominic Cull (firebrand lawyer for the forces of telecommunications good in South Africa) pointed out the obvious. He said that one of the single most important things mobile operators could do to make a difference for the poor would be to drop the price of SMS charges. The funny thing about the obvious is that we often don’t see what is staring us in the face.
90% profit on SMSes For those who may not be familiar with the technology of SMS, it doesn’t cost a mobile operator very much to send and receive SMSes. In fact, for GSM networks, SMSes are sent on a signalling channel which means that they don’t actually take up any traffic that would otherwise be used by voice calls. So, with voice infrastructure, mobile operators basically get SMS infrastructure for free. Now, that doesn’t mean that it is free for operators to provide. There are obviously billing and technical systems that need to be maintained to ensure that SMSes continue to function but it is about as close to free money as you can get.
About a year ago there was a blog post on the high cost SMS, subsequently picked up by Slashdot, which raised a small storm of indignation about the cost of SMS. In December last year, New York Times published an article highlighting the failure of the chair of the Senate anti-trust subcommittee to get anything like a reasonable explanation from operators on why SMS charges in the U.S. had doubled between 2005 and 2008 in the United States.
So what are the facts? The global average cost of an SMS is about 10 U.S. cents per message. Here in South Africa the cost of an SMS is R 0.75 or about 7 U.S. cents per message. Doesn’t sound like very much until you consider that, according to the ITU in 2006, the global SMS market is worth about 80 billion U.S. dollars annually. The New York Times article estimated that 2.5 trillion SMS messages were sent globally last year. A Huawei article estimates that 80-90% of SMS revenue is profit.
How is this possible? Why haven’t market forces brought the cost of an SMS down to something somewhat related to its cost + a reasonable profit? Why are consumers paying ten times the cost per SMS? Communication technology has gotten more sophisticated, less expensive, more automated and SMS volumes have sky-rocketed, yet on average cost per SMS has gone up. So what is up with that? A communications regulator doesn’t have to look much further for evidence of market failure.
So why do people put up with this? Partly, I think it is because behaviour in spending on mobiles is not entirely rational. Having anchored high prices for SMSes, it is comparatively easy for mobile operators to simply carry on charging high prices. Everyone, rich or poor, needs access to communication. For the poor, as expensive (comparative to cost) as SMSes are, they are still the cheapest form of pervasive electronic communication. Consider this in a context where poor Africans are spending over 50% of their disposable income on mobile communication (see the table below for more detailed information). What this amounts to is a level of price gouging on the part of mobile operators in developing countries that verges on the criminal. They make the highest profit margin on the service the poor need most.
So here is my proposal. The 1 cent SMS. Let’s challenge mobile operators to make a real difference to the poor by dropping pay-as-you-go SMS charges to 1 U.S. cent per message. Applied globally that would reduce SMS revenue to 8 billion dollars; arguably still a tidy sum. However, that is not taking into account the upside for operators. The reduced SMS costs would enable increased SMS traffic and new, as yet unthought of SMS-based enterprises such as Nathan Eagle’s innovative txteagle start-up.
To get a more complete sense of what people are paying for mobile communications in Africa, here is an excerpt from Alison Gillwald and Christoph Stork’s 2008 publication “Towards Evidence-Based Policy: ICT Access and Usage in Africa“, published by Research ICT Africa,
Monthly expenditure for mobile telephony as share of income and disposable income
ICASA - Stealing from AIDS Orphans »
A Modest Proposal - The 1 cent SMS
Published on 17 February 2009 in Telecom Policy.
I am filled today, as is often enough the case these days, with a sense of righteous indignation. In a meeting earlier today, Dominic Cull (firebrand lawyer for the forces of telecommunications good in South Africa) pointed out the obvious. He said that one of the single most important things mobile operators could do to make a difference for the poor would be to drop the price of SMS charges. The funny thing about the obvious is that we often don’t see what is staring us in the face.
90% profit on SMSes For those who may not be familiar with the technology of SMS, it doesn’t cost a mobile operator very much to send and receive SMSes. In fact, for GSM networks, SMSes are sent on a signalling channel which means that they don’t actually take up any traffic that would otherwise be used by voice calls. So, with voice infrastructure, mobile operators basically get SMS infrastructure for free. Now, that doesn’t mean that it is free for operators to provide. There are obviously billing and technical systems that need to be maintained to ensure that SMSes continue to function but it is about as close to free money as you can get.
About a year ago there was a blog post on the high cost SMS, subsequently picked up by Slashdot, which raised a small storm of indignation about the cost of SMS. In December last year, New York Times published an article highlighting the failure of the chair of the Senate anti-trust subcommittee to get anything like a reasonable explanation from operators on why SMS charges in the U.S. had doubled between 2005 and 2008 in the United States.
So what are the facts? The global average cost of an SMS is about 10 U.S. cents per message. Here in South Africa the cost of an SMS is R 0.75 or about 7 U.S. cents per message. Doesn’t sound like very much until you consider that, according to the ITU in 2006, the global SMS market is worth about 80 billion U.S. dollars annually. The New York Times article estimated that 2.5 trillion SMS messages were sent globally last year. A Huawei article estimates that 80-90% of SMS revenue is profit.
How is this possible? Why haven’t market forces brought the cost of an SMS down to something somewhat related to its cost + a reasonable profit? Why are consumers paying ten times the cost per SMS? Communication technology has gotten more sophisticated, less expensive, more automated and SMS volumes have sky-rocketed, yet on average cost per SMS has gone up. So what is up with that? A communications regulator doesn’t have to look much further for evidence of market failure.
So why do people put up with this? Partly, I think it is because behaviour in spending on mobiles is not entirely rational. Having anchored high prices for SMSes, it is comparatively easy for mobile operators to simply carry on charging high prices. Everyone, rich or poor, needs access to communication. For the poor, as expensive (comparative to cost) as SMSes are, they are still the cheapest form of pervasive electronic communication. Consider this in a context where poor Africans are spending over 50% of their disposable income on mobile communication (see the table below for more detailed information). What this amounts to is a level of price gouging on the part of mobile operators in developing countries that verges on the criminal. They make the highest profit margin on the service the poor need most.
So here is my proposal. The 1 cent SMS. Let’s challenge mobile operators to make a real difference to the poor by dropping pay-as-you-go SMS charges to 1 U.S. cent per message. Applied globally that would reduce SMS revenue to 8 billion dollars; arguably still a tidy sum. However, that is not taking into account the upside for operators. The reduced SMS costs would enable increased SMS traffic and new, as yet unthought of SMS-based enterprises such as Nathan Eagle’s innovative txteagle start-up.
To get a more complete sense of what people are paying for mobile communications in Africa, here is an excerpt from Alison Gillwald and Christoph Stork’s 2008 publication “Towards Evidence-Based Policy: ICT Access and Usage in Africa“, published by Research ICT Africa,
Monthly expenditure for mobile telephony as share of income and disposable income
Canonical Discusses Ubuntu Mobile Internet Devices
Barcelona: Canonical Discusses Ubuntu Mobile Internet Devices by Joe Panettieri
Ubuntu Mobile Internet DeviceDuring the GSMA Mobile World Conference in Barcelona this week, Canonical is working behind the scenes — evangelizing Ubuntu-based Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) to new and existing customers. The big question: Will Canonical line up more Ubuntu MID partners, or will MIDs (highly mobile WiFi devices) remain overshadowed by the netbook craze?
For its part, Intel is promoting a new MID technology — called Moorestown — at the mobile conference, notes The Wall Street Journal.
Canonical isn’t exhibiting at the conference, but the company is holding meetings behind the scenes and taking a close look at Moorestown.
“We are definitely keen to do a Moorestown-based MID device,” notes Canonical Marketing Manager Gerry Carr. “Of course we need a customer to ask us to do it first but we work very closely with Intel on these initiatives and have been working towards Moorestown for some time.”
Touchy Subject
Still, Canonical’s MID initiative seems to be overshadowed by the ongoing netbook craze. When Canonical and Intel announced joint work on MIDs in mid-2007, the effort was expected to focus on touch-driven WiFi devices (and other form factors) that weren’t quite smart phones. But since that time, two key mobile market disruptions have occured:
1. Netbooks came out of nowhere, and demand for the low-cost devices (running Windows XP or Linux) has prompted some skeptics to question whether MIDs will ever gain critical mass.
2. Google Android, to some extent, has captured the attention of software developers and mobile device makers. It’s widely seen as the “open” alternative to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Still, 36 percent of WorksWithU readers continue to express a strong interest in MIDs, according to WorksWithU reader poll concluded January 23, 2009. Concludes Canonical’s Carr: MIDs are “a category we are committed to and believe will succeed.”
Frankly, I agree with Carr. The reason: Apple’s iTouch (iPod Touch) proves there’s demand for WiFi-enabled mobile devices that aren’t traditional notebooks or smart phones.
Ubuntu Mobile Internet DeviceDuring the GSMA Mobile World Conference in Barcelona this week, Canonical is working behind the scenes — evangelizing Ubuntu-based Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) to new and existing customers. The big question: Will Canonical line up more Ubuntu MID partners, or will MIDs (highly mobile WiFi devices) remain overshadowed by the netbook craze?
For its part, Intel is promoting a new MID technology — called Moorestown — at the mobile conference, notes The Wall Street Journal.
Canonical isn’t exhibiting at the conference, but the company is holding meetings behind the scenes and taking a close look at Moorestown.
“We are definitely keen to do a Moorestown-based MID device,” notes Canonical Marketing Manager Gerry Carr. “Of course we need a customer to ask us to do it first but we work very closely with Intel on these initiatives and have been working towards Moorestown for some time.”
Touchy Subject
Still, Canonical’s MID initiative seems to be overshadowed by the ongoing netbook craze. When Canonical and Intel announced joint work on MIDs in mid-2007, the effort was expected to focus on touch-driven WiFi devices (and other form factors) that weren’t quite smart phones. But since that time, two key mobile market disruptions have occured:
1. Netbooks came out of nowhere, and demand for the low-cost devices (running Windows XP or Linux) has prompted some skeptics to question whether MIDs will ever gain critical mass.
2. Google Android, to some extent, has captured the attention of software developers and mobile device makers. It’s widely seen as the “open” alternative to the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Still, 36 percent of WorksWithU readers continue to express a strong interest in MIDs, according to WorksWithU reader poll concluded January 23, 2009. Concludes Canonical’s Carr: MIDs are “a category we are committed to and believe will succeed.”
Frankly, I agree with Carr. The reason: Apple’s iTouch (iPod Touch) proves there’s demand for WiFi-enabled mobile devices that aren’t traditional notebooks or smart phones.
Asus to phase out 9 inch netbooks, focus on 10 inch models
Asus to phase out 9 inch netbooks, focus on 10 inch models
901-no-goAs expected, it looks like Asus will be phasing out all of its Eee PC netbooks with 8.9 inch displays soon. The goal is to focus on laptops with 10 inch screens, which appear to be the industry standard today. The machines with larger displays also tend to have larger keyboards which are easier to type on, although the screen resolution on 8.9 inch and 10.1 or 10.2 inch netbooks is typically the same (1024 x 600 pixels, give or take a few pixels).
Asus expects 95% of its netbook shipments in 2010 to be 10 inch Eee PC models. The other 5% will be netbooks with 7 inch screens, probably sold through telephone companies.
901-no-goAs expected, it looks like Asus will be phasing out all of its Eee PC netbooks with 8.9 inch displays soon. The goal is to focus on laptops with 10 inch screens, which appear to be the industry standard today. The machines with larger displays also tend to have larger keyboards which are easier to type on, although the screen resolution on 8.9 inch and 10.1 or 10.2 inch netbooks is typically the same (1024 x 600 pixels, give or take a few pixels).
Asus expects 95% of its netbook shipments in 2010 to be 10 inch Eee PC models. The other 5% will be netbooks with 7 inch screens, probably sold through telephone companies.
Asus Eee PC 1000H
Sure, the Asus Eee PC 1000H has been out for a little while now and you may have already seen an unboxing video or two. But you haven’t seen my unboxing video yet, have you? So check it out:
I’ve been playing with the laptop for about a half hour, and so far I’m very impressed. It addresses almost every issue I’ve had with the Eee CP 701 and the HP Mini-Note:
* The onboard graphics and CPU are powerful enough to handle multitasking and multimedia. It plays Hulu videos flawlessly.
* The 1024 x 600 pixel display doesn’t manage to fit as much on the screen as the 1280 x 768 pixel display, but it handles most web sites (including this one) just fine, and no squinting is necessary when looking at this computer.
* The keyboard is much larger and easier to type on than the Eee PC 701 keyboard. It’s not quite as easy to touch type on as the HP Mini-Note.
* The touchpad is nice and wide, and has two trackpad buttons. But I still prefer to plug in a travel mouse.
* Asus ships a padded slip case for the computer
* The power brick and AC adapter are relatively small, and feature a two-prong plug that goes many places the HP Mini-Note three-prong plug will not.
On the down sde, the built in speakers are pretty quiet. And the webcam is a bit choppy, at least with the included software. I’ll try another application soon.
I was mildly surprised to note that Asus ships the Eee PC 1000H with Microsoft Works and StarOffice rather than OpenOffice.org. Of course, StarOffice and OpenOffice.org are basically the same office suite. But it seemed like an odd choice.
Posted on Friday, August 22nd, 2008, 1:39 pm by Brad Linder
Tags: asus eee pc, asus eee pc 1000h, eee pc, unboxing, video
Asus Eee PC 1000H-X will come with MS Office preloaded
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/02/asus-eee-pc-1000h-x-will-come-with-ms-office-preloaded.html
Asus Eee PC 1000H-X will come with MS Office preloaded
Asus is reportedly launching a version of its Eee PC 1000H netbook with Microsoft Office Personal 2007 preloaded in Japan. The Eee PC 1000H-X will have a 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 160GB hard drive, and it will be priced at 57,800 yen or about $617 US. If that price seems high, keep in mind the fact that most computers cost more in Japan than in the US.
This will be the first Eee PC model to ship with Microsoft Office. Most netbooks in the Eee PC lineup come with Sun’s StarOffice suite preloaded. Staroffice provides much of the same functionality as Microsoft Office, (or OpenOffice.org, which started out as the open source stepchild of SunOffice), and can even open and edit most Office documents. But if you’ve ever tried using SunOffice to edit complex Excel or Word documents, you know that sometimes things can get lost in translation.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen mention of an Eee PC 1000H-X. The model number first reared its head back in October. So I’m guessing that the model number has nothing to do with the software stack. Rather, Asus is preloading some new software on an existing netbook.
Asus Eee PC 1000H-X will come with MS Office preloaded
Asus is reportedly launching a version of its Eee PC 1000H netbook with Microsoft Office Personal 2007 preloaded in Japan. The Eee PC 1000H-X will have a 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 160GB hard drive, and it will be priced at 57,800 yen or about $617 US. If that price seems high, keep in mind the fact that most computers cost more in Japan than in the US.
This will be the first Eee PC model to ship with Microsoft Office. Most netbooks in the Eee PC lineup come with Sun’s StarOffice suite preloaded. Staroffice provides much of the same functionality as Microsoft Office, (or OpenOffice.org, which started out as the open source stepchild of SunOffice), and can even open and edit most Office documents. But if you’ve ever tried using SunOffice to edit complex Excel or Word documents, you know that sometimes things can get lost in translation.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen mention of an Eee PC 1000H-X. The model number first reared its head back in October. So I’m guessing that the model number has nothing to do with the software stack. Rather, Asus is preloading some new software on an existing netbook.
Sakar’s Kid-Friendly Netbook: Hands On and Video
Sakar’s Kid-Friendly Netbook: Hands On and Video
February 17th, 2009 by Dana Wollman
http://blog.laptopmag.com/sakars-kid-friendly-netbook-hands-on-and-video netbooks-lead-imageIf you’ve never heard of Sakar, it’s because it’s primarily a licensing company, which buys rights to big names like Crayola and Hello Kitty, and then slaps them on digital cameras and camcorders, and MP3 players for kids.
So, Sakar’s booth was the last place I expected to find a netbook at Toy Fair 2009 (not that I expected to find any netbooks, honestly). Moreover, it was the last place I expected to find what looks suspiciously like another 3K Razorbook 400, one our least favorite netbooks of all time. Perhaps, like the RazorBook, it is also a rebranded Exon PC701-XL from China.
This is the company’s first foray into computers– let alone pint-size ones– so right now, everything is tentative: there’s no word on specs, battery life, street date, or even an official name. However, Sakar said $299 was the highest price at which it would sell a netbook, which is music to our ears.
That doesn’t mean I can’t give Sakar some feedback on the design, though. The chassis is about the size of a 10-inch netbook, although the screen itself is 8 or 9 inches, thanks to a thick bezel. The chassis comes in four attractive colors: hot pink, purple, red, and silver. From the look and feel of it, it appears to have a three-cell battery. And, unlike the RazerBook, it has built-in Wi-Fi, as opposed to a dongle.
keyboardOn the one hand, the keyboard extends almost from edge to edge. However, some of the keys are undersized and oddly placed (the right shift key is to the right of the up arrow key, a story we’ve heard many times). And yet, this doesn’t seem as egregious in a notebook meant for kids, who probably aren’t touch typists anyway.
Although the trackpad had a nice, textured feel to it, its touch buttons flank the touch pad, just like the HP Mini 1000’s. They provided good tactile feedback, though, and weren’t so hard to use in practice.
The Linux OS also reminded me of the HP Mini 1000 Mi series. It has a tabbed interface that separates Internet (a browser, chat client, and e-mail program), multimedia (painting, photos, and music, among others), and productivity (word processing and the like). The UI is easy enough for a small child to use, but the software stack covers older kids’ needs, too.
Again, no word yet on when this will hit the market, but in the meantime check out our hands-on video.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
