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War Brewing on the Inexpensive Laptop Front
The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting look at the war brewing on the inexpensive laptop front. With everything from the Eee PC to the OLPC, the trend in slimming and trimming seems to be continuing. "The market segment is so new it doesn't have a name yet or even an agreed-upon set of specifications. Intel, the chipmaker, calls the category "netbooks," recognizing that much of what people do on their laptops involves going on the Net. The new machines are also being called ultra-low-cost PCs, mininotebooks, or even mobile Internet gadgets. In appearance, they have the familiar clamshell design, but they're smaller, with seven- to 10-inch screens. They offer full keyboards (albeit with smaller keys) and weigh less than three pounds. Perhaps most important, the majority cost less than $500 - some as little as $299. Intel says it expects more than 50 million of these netbooks to be sold by 2011. It's introduced a tiny, low-power processor to run them called Atom, which puts 47 million transistors on a chip about the size of a penny."
These devices serve a need - web surf, email, document edit, spreadsheets. If you exclude gamers, thats 80% of the market for a laptop. Personally, lugging a big heavy laptop is a no-go for a lot of us.
www.effectiveelectrons.com "chips that work" Analog, RF, Mixed Signal
Remember the NEC Mobile Pro, or the HP Jornada? Practically the same formfactor, reborn.
To me that the natural directions - chips are getting smaller, consume less power, so getting ultra-portable gets more affordable.
Now the limiting factor in usability of those devices seem to be not the processing power, but human interaction.
Both the keyboard and the screen are inevitably small, which makes typing and reading a challenge.
Some say that the future is in portable projectors and virtual keyboards, but that doesn't seem to be the ultimate solution - you need two flat surfaces and some headroom for those, which seems not to be the case for instance in an airplane.
I think challenges like efficient voice commands, or even brain waves (aka NIA) are the solution for input.
For the output again a direct interface to the nerves or to the eye, or else, there will still be need for full sized peripherals, so it won't matter how small can the computers themselves get.
I personally find a full-sized fully-functional laptop much better. You can get them around $500 right now, and most of them will browse the Internet and write up simple office documents quite well. The mini-laptops are nice as a third computer (desktop, laptop, mini-laptop), but like the SMART car, are only useful to those who can afford to have the third one as a luxury.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
From the article, "Many run on an operating system called Linux, favored by the technorati but little known among most computer users."
Is this really a problem? I think that most of the people who don't know Linux aren't really aware of what Windows is either. They'll probably call any windowing system "Windows". As long as there are pictures to click on and it opens windows, it will be of little or no concern.
Have you looked at PalmOS or Windows Mobile? They suck as operating systems. PalmOS isn't even multitasking. Windows Mobile has numerous restrictions relative to desktop Windows. Furthermore, no, they don't offer "every type of application". Many applications for those systems are designed for tiny screens and don't scale up. Also, having two different kinds of apps on the mobile and desktop system is a major headache. If that kind of stripped down OS and application appeals to you, get a keyboard for your phone.
Fortunately, it's not an either/or choice: Linux actually scales really nicely from mobile to desktop devices.
Why do the OLPC and Classmate keep getting included in these articles?
Don't get me wrong, I have an OLPC, I love it... but the OLPC was only available for individual consumers for a month, is no longer, has no plans on being available to us again, and was never designed for us in the first place, but instead designed to be available to governments and to be operated by children. The Classmate is in the same boat as well. Which naturally puts these in a class completely separate (not arguing better or worse, just separate) from the rest of these 'netbooks' referred to, certainly completely different than the EEEpc.
In short, they has no place being compared to the new wave of sub-mini-net-whatever-books.
So not to repeat, but why does everyone insist on including them?
Who are 'they' and 'them' and why are you assuming you know what they need? Seems like ASUS Eee's success suggests that it nailed what 'they' and 'them' need.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
The OLPC looked like an awesome product when it started. I was designed for use in the middle of no where for children in under developed nations. There was a buy one - give one program going on but that got shut down for some reason.
Lately Negroponte decided it should go with windows instead of the original open source OS, which prompted Bender to resign. And there is a general sense that they have sold out.
For a while it looked promising, I wanted to pick one up. Thought it would be great for camping. Get some PDF books and read it on the go in the open sunlight with a water resistant clam shell and a hand crank power supply. This seemed much better than a Kindle to me.
There was even a lot of DIY home brew hacks going on at first. People using it along with Arduino for some neat applications.
Alas... why must everyone sell out.
Eschew Obfuscation
Why are these machines so expensive?
Because price only scales up with features, not down.
My problem is that I want a full sized screen. Checking email and going through pdf's, doc's, and spreadsheets, I find I do a lot better with a big screen (or two) than even a normal laptop screen.
Do we think this is going to be taken care of by having docking stations all over the place, or will I need to wait for roll-out, flexible screens?
Some of the "inexpensive" laptops are $600! For a bit over that amount you can get a full blown laptop with larger screen and hard drive, higher resolution and more comfortable keyboard. What am I missing here?
> Except every one of these machines is capable of running Windows...
Yes.... for now. It should be obvious by now that OLPC insisted on an x86 compatible machine, even though it raised the cost and lowered battery life, because they realized doing a deal with Microsoft would eventually be a requirement for political reasons. Same with Asus and the eeepc, plus they were building it in a joint venture with Intel.
Yes, any $250+ machine will probably just wave the Linux flag as a bargining tool to get really good prices (and keep XP available, etc) on Windows.
But none of that is interesting longterm. I'm waiting for the less than $200 pricepoint to open up. Moore's Law says it will get here soon enough. Even better is when somebody builds one based on an ARM all in one solution that won't be able to run Windows regardless how much incentive or political pressure Microsoft brings to bear.
It should be obvious though that there exists a pricepoint that Microsoft can't compete at without risking canibalizing their existing monopoly. That market niche will be the wedge that will eventually lever em out of market dominance.
Democrat delenda est
I have an Eee PC for work. It has GCC, Python, Emacs, and the PostgreSQL client programs installed. You say "notepad with spellcheck". I say "tiny development system that lets me telecommute from my backyard on sunny days".
For me (and apparently millions of others), the Eee PC is the sweet spot for portable computing. It's small enough that I don't think twice about dragging it along wherever I'm going, and yet big enough that I'm not giving up anything. No "portable OS" will ever match the flexibility it offers.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
UMPCs are a bit smaller (similar size or slightly bigger than a Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100), but have a more powerful processor, more ram, and a much shorter battery life than these new devices. Oh, and they also run about $2000.00 or so.
These netbooks are a hybrid of the laptop and UMPC concept -- keep shrinking the laptop until the point that the price would start going up, then cut back the processing power & memory until it is the minimum to run their target apps (web browser, email, productivity apps).
I think I remember them, they were called notebook computers. I am a firm believer that if you can afford to have both a desktop and a laptop then the laptop should be about the size of a 100 pg spiral notebook. I do not carry all my engineering books with me when I travel, why carry all my files with me when I travel. Take what you believe you need to perform your business and if you find that a certain file would be good for the clients to have then send it to them via email when you get home.
insert inflammatory comment here!
There's a similar offering for the desktop front, the "Nettop". Think really cheap, small fanless box you hook up with full size keyboard, mouse and screen. Intel is really throwing a volley at AMDs margins if they can ship these in volume on time.
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agred - I have usd an iPod touch and it's well adapted for the uses you state, but bear in mind that the expansible firefox browser on an EEE PC is much more suited for web apps and the more desktop-like OS makes for easier porting of favourite applications (fewer developer restrictions too)
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
UMPC is Microsoft's new name for its old tablet idea. It does not encompass mini Linux laptops like the EEE PC, ultra cheap Linux systems like the XO, WiFi handheld mobiles like the iPhone, very thin but expensive laptops like the MacBook Air, or any other products that might be ultra mobile but not from Microsoft.
Last year, UMPC units didn't sell a million units. That's why nobody is in any hurry to call their product a "UMPC." That, and its a stupid name that almost appears to be designed to prevent sales.
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Hmmmm.... I learned programming on a 640x480 screen. I don't know what you're trying to say, but a programmable machine is a programmable machine. Let it be a Atari Portfolio, a Toshiba CT120 or a Core 8 Quad Flux.
would have the screen from the OLPC. I have an OLPC, and I love it. The keyboard, obviously, is too small (kid sized by design), and the processor could be faster for use where power is more plentiful - i.e. the Eee PC is nearly ideal, except the screen seems cramped after using the OLPC. Also, the reflective mode for use in daylight is very nice.
Porting windows isn't the issue. The selling point of windows is the apps. You switch from x86 to ARM and suddenly linux now has a very distinct advantage.