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$200 Intel Android Laptops Are Coming
symbolset writes "Outbound Intel CEO Paul Otellini created quite a stir when mentioning that touchscreen laptops would reach a $200 price point. CNET is now reporting in an interview with Intel chief product officer Dadi Perlmutter that these touchscreen laptops will run Android on Intel Atom processors at first. 'Whether Windows 8 PCs hit that price largely depends on Microsoft, he said. "We have a good technology that enables a very cost-effective price point," Perlmutter said. The price of Windows 8 laptops "depends on how Microsoft prices Windows 8. It may be a slightly higher price point." ... Perlmutter didn't specify what the Android notebooks will look like, but it's probable they'll be convertible-type devices. He also noted that he expects the PC market to pick up in the back half of the year and heading into 2014 as new devices become available."
Anyone want to bet that Microsoft will price themselves right out of the $200 atom market? I'm betting that $200 will be right about the price point for just the OS, so unless Intel wants to give away their atom touchscreen lappies, they'll remain android, or possibly get a linux option.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
Intel says "Fuck you Microsoft and fuck Windows 8".
Interesting. I would have thought Chrome would have been a better fit for the laptop but I guess Intel is keen to push Touch and Android is much better suited to that end.
I wonder too if this is a ploy to encourage MS to lower its prices too?
To me it looks like Intel is pushing touch as a must have feature to try and get everyone to upgrade but I see it mostly as a fad myself (kinda like 3D TV). It's kinda interesting but ultimately not upgrade worthy.
Though if someone implemented it in such a way that it really did add value then I would be happy to change my mind.
Ryans Tutorials - A collection of technology tutorials.
Hmmm... android winning... windows dying... Is it finally the year of linux on the laptop? (even if it's an intel androidy laptop)
.
I thought that the sub-$300 laptops were declared dead last year and at the beginning of this year. Are people finally realizing that holding a tablet upright isn't all that it's cracked up to be?
:>)
And also that {unbundling a touchscreen laptop and selling its parts individually as a touchscreen tablet + case cover + attachable keyboard + carryalong recharger which ends up costing twice the cost of the comparable bundled together laptop in the firstplace} is untenable in a market-place where people are still interested in saving money.
You 6-digit username kids might not remember this, but once upon a time, a comment like this could sink your whole product, or whole company...Windows was it for PC. (imagine Dell or HP saying this in '98)
Now, it's like, "Yeah, Microsoft can come to the party, but they'll have to bring their own booze"
I deem this Android/Intel laptop to be *the* game changer that causes even mainstream media to realize M$ dying quickly.
I guess we'll see...
Thank you Dave Raggett
Because Microsoft requires certified Windows 8 hardware to be shipped with secure boot feature enabled by default, Intel might be interested in designing a computer that isn't purpose built for Microsoft to control.
Intel might be building a computer that gives other operating systems a test bed to innovate and create something new. A multifunction laptop/tablet that can run Android, Chrome, Linux, or Firefox OS as the user desires.
Why the lights are on in Redmond and there are chairs being seen coming out the flying everywhere.
Intel can fire sale Atom chips, but they can't achieve price parity with competing non-Windows ARM-based devices without ditching the Windows tax.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Presell-Teclast-G18-8-dual-camera-tablet-pc-with-3G-SIM-card-slot-GPS-bluetooth-MTK8377/750423859.html
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
Bitch please, enough of those bad jokes.
$200 Android tablets use $9-20 ARM A9 dual-quad core SOCs. How is Intel going to compete with that? Give chips for free and make it up in volume?
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
200$ for a tablet that will not potentially suck with a windows CE OS and a Pentium era CPU, ...with a keyboard ?
and a wife in college?
maybe sold, if it replaces my 10 inch fujitsu lifebook running w2k and office 2000
... pay the same for a 2 year old second hand laptop with far better specs all round. Its the same deal as with cars - if you don't mind using something thats already had someone elses grubby hands on it you can get a LOT of bang for your buck.
look at these
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Google-Android-4-0-MID-10-inch-Netbook-with-Webcam-1GB-Ram-4GB-Memory-/350753904645?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item51aa8fd805
Or at least that's what the pundits has been saying. I'm assuming they're not making a laptop with a full-size screen for $200, so this is in essence going to be a netbook with a detachable keyboard. For $200. If they don't add any silly barriers to installing Debian on it, I'm very interested.
People who think this means anything are forgetting one thing - it's Android but not ARM.
So it's going to have approximately ZERO software out of the gate. Even the Chromebook has a vastly greater capability in the near term compared to any Intel Android device.
Yes you could probably just simply re-compile any Android app and add Atom support. But who is going to realistically do that?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Remember when just a few years ago Intel was pushing that one of the futures of mobile computing were MIDs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Internet_device I think Apple and a few other companies had a lot better execution for creating devices that consumers actually wanted and were willing to pay for ...
I don't want a touch screen. How about saving the touch screen and making a $150 laptop? The touch screen is just unwanted extra cost. I have a hard enough time keeping the screen clean without people intentionally smearing their grubby fingers across it. It's definitely not anything I want to pay extra for.
Netbooks are quite useful. I'd also like to see more ARM units with long battery life. The netbook form has more room for battery than a tablet does so there really aren't any excuses any more for not having 10 - 12 hours of battery. That's enough to get through a full day at a conference or long flight with transfers.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Why not Ubuntu instead of Android, to get a more full-featured laptop?
Android doesn't even have official printer support.
Ignoring that Ubuntu is a success. Your question is the meme When will Linux be successful on the Desktop? The answer to most of us is obvious who see than Microsoft has no competitors left. Even if it backstabs its customers and manufactures causing a loss of 14% of Sales. It still celebrates its best quarter ever...and almost 80% Gross Profit Margin. In short because of Microsofts Abusive Monopoly or simply that it exists. The right question is why Android on the Desktop? This is Linus on Chrome (I know its not Android but the points are the same) https://plus.google.com/+LinusTorvalds/posts/dk1aiW4JjHd yet its a massive opportunity. The reason is Google (and Apple although they don't have a desire to compete!?) sidestepped Microsoft and captured (More) Mobile computing, with a new breed of easy to use computing (or old client server computing depending on your age). Android alone is set to overtake Windows this year!!. These companies are so large that Microsoft itself cannot bully or bribe them, and Android is a popular product with both end customers and manufacturers.
Remember when just a few years ago Intel was pushing that one of the futures of mobile computing were MIDs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Internet_device
I think Apple and a few other companies had a lot better execution for creating devices that consumers actually wanted and were willing to pay for ...
In reality the natural evolution of the MID rolled around http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N9 it was considered far superior to anything Apple at the time, it was simply killed as part of the Elop turing Nokia into a windows phone. In fact the Lumia range is a crippled version of the N9. In context of this Article Apple (well your post anyway) have long since given away their part in the future of Mobile computing. Apple should be leading this charge not google, not defending its shrinking profit (margins), but Apple are followers now.
Ignoring all the obvious fact that Android runs on Intel...and has done for a long time, and had already several phones and cheap ones too. Intel will offer *binary* compatibility of desktop applications.
Although I agree with you, I would love to see the rise of the Android Laptops, Which will have their own benefits including price and battery Life.
Anyone want to bet that Microsoft will price themselves right out of the $200 atom market? I'm betting that $200 will be right about the price point for just the OS, so unless Intel wants to give away their atom touchscreen lappies, they'll remain android, or possibly get a linux option.
Depends how much crapware they can shovel onto the Windows laptop. The crapware vendors donate a buck or so for each installation, in the expectation that some of them will result in fifty or so bucks back, and maybe annual fees or future upgrades. It's one of the reasons there is little difference between the price of a PC with Windows and a PC with no OS (sometimes the Windows PC is even cheaper). Our strategy has been to just wipe the disk and install Xubuntu; no problems, and no crapware.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
I am an Android app developer. But I won't buy a laptop with Android.
In linux, and even on Windows, you can open a shell and have access to the OS of your computer. Android doesn't have such a thing. Which means, you can use your Android laptop only in the way the vendor intended you to. You have access to settings only through the UI, which is, to the settings that the vendor allows you to change. I would buy an Android laptop only if I can get a shell with it that gives me access to the full OS.
no, I don't have a sig
Or at least that's what the pundits has been saying.
Except the tradition market was killed off to preserve the Windows Monopoly, and the higher priced laptops. Ironically simply handing the more mobile market to tablets...Giving both ARM and Android (oooh Google) a massive window (giggle) of opportunity (at least they Killed off another GNU/Linux opportunity).
Although its a guilty secret of PC industry that Surface/MacBook are are simply overpriced netbooks. The reality is https://plus.google.com/+LinusTorvalds/posts/dk1aiW4JjHd this is Linux on Chromebooks. It shows the future of Debian looking very exciting.
... pay the same for a 2 year old second hand laptop with far better specs all round. Its the same deal as with cars - if you don't mind using something thats already had someone elses grubby hands on it you can get a LOT of bang for your buck.
Ignoring the fact that you are comparing a second hand machine to a new one!? Or that Windows is runs badly on the same hardware. There is a massive drop of interest in Windows there have been 5 articles here in the past week, people want Android...they don't want Windows. The fact of equivalent machine with Android is cheaper than the Windows one id a benefit to everyone but Microsoft.
200$ for a tablet that will not potentially suck with a windows CE OS and a Pentium era CPU, maybe sold, if it replaces my 10 inch fujitsu lifebook running w2k and office 2000
Apart from the obvious. Windows CE was awful...badly received and in any way a joke when compared to Android. Even Microsoft put a bullet in that horse (Although its amusing that what they replace it with is more unpopular)
The reality is these machines are placed as direct replacements to windows Laptops.
My sister is an Apple fan, so my mom is now using an iPad as her *only* (not just primary) device. She hasn't had an issue so far, other than she had to re-buy some programs she had with equivelent apps.
Your topic being off-topic it is worth noting in context of this article that Android are now outselling Apple on tablets, and if your sister/mom has need for a keyboard in future its probably better to invest in Android.
Minimum install base for W8 is 16GB and 1GB RAM. We all know that means to be useful it needs 32GB storage and 2GB RAM. Just those two things put them out of the $200 market already. We don't even have to look at their poor showing in developers and app ecosystems.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Dying?? WTF, go read their revenue GROWTH and profit GROWTH for the last quarter before you say moronic things. To be dying their growth would have to at least be stagnant, preferably decreasing, hint IT ISN'T. So far android laptops have failed, the chromebooks have sold less than the disaster that was surface tablets.
IBM doesn't sell many computers either. ;). Microsoft has had revenue growth despite three quarter of dropping windows computer sales, on the back of raised priced in server live, an EOL console live subscriptions, making more monet from online office...instead of offline office....hold the bus three quarters of dropping sales.
Interestingly if we look at Amazon...the largest online retailer. http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/electronics/565108/ref=sr_bs_1 A chromebook is *still* the bestselling laptop....I couldn't see the surface in the top 100!?
Just having Office make this better than Android.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/libreoffice-for-android-frustratingly-close-to-release/ Libreoffice in close to release so you don't have to wait too long. Although many users have already moved to alternatives like Google Docs.
I don't want a touch screen. How about saving the touch screen and making a $150 laptop?
Ignoring that the Android OS has advantages when using a touchscreen. I think you need to look for your saving elsewhere. We live in Bazarro world where my (relevantly) expensive low resolution and DPI touchless laptop cost's more than my relatively *cheap* touchsceen high DPI tablet. The bought a whole tablet yesterday for $100. I'd be surprised if the keyboard would cost $50.
Office doesn't run on Android.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/03/libreoffice-for-android-frustratingly-close-to-release/ LibreOffice is close to release :) Although Android has a several of its own.
Between a douche and a turd sandwich.
As Steve Jobs said in the iPad launch keynote "They're just cheap laptops"
Except the quote was this ""They're slow, they have low quality displays and they run clunky old PC software. They're not better than a laptop at anything, they're just cheaper: they're just cheap laptops."
The new generation of $200 laptops are fast, high quality displays...and run Android.
In context of price mentioned in this quote, Android has already surpassed Apple in the tablet market by producing better value tablets. Perhaps price is something Jobs should not have dismissed so easily.
Ironically younger Jobs agrees with me "What ruined Apple was not growth They got very greedy Instead of following the original trajectory of the original vision, which was to make the thing an appliance and get this out there to as many people as possible they went for profits. They made outlandish profits for about four years. What this cost them was their future. What they should have been doing is making rational profits and going for market share.”"
I was the submitter and barely half those words were mine.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Awe crap. Atom? Seriously? Fuck. Don't get me wrong, I do still write some machince code in hex, and ASM code too (for fun, a 'hobby' OS from scratch project -- when I need to blow off steam from BS in high level languages, I can cuddle right up to the warm CPU and whisper sweet nopcodes in its ears...) -- for that x86-64 is great, but from a practical perspective x86 and friends are bloated and less efficient than ARM. ARM can be licensed by anyone, and it's trimmed down and efficient. Geared for compilers, not overly cluttered with useless instructions you've got to emulate. I mean, under the hood it's all microcode, would it hurt to use a better API?
I would love to jump in and say how languages and chipsets don't matter because at the end of the day we're running highlevel code with abstractions atop them to insulate us from the underpinnings... But that's a fallacy. The truth is that I'll be writing my high level code once then testing it everywhere, on each platform, then making optimisations around bottlenecks -- business as usual. I experience less problems and fewer new bottlenecks in code compiled and executed (even JIT) across platforms with the same instruction sets. Completely ignoring the hardware is a sin, platform independence is a fine goal, but ultimately an illusion.
Come on Intel. x86 was great when we had to write op-codes by hand, but that's not the case anymore. Let's move on. x86 was so pervasive for so long because of the binary compatibility of applications. Take a hint from your own business -- Android is a new playground. It's time to adopt ARM and kick everyone's asses with your bad-ass fabrication tech. Otherwise, when we get down to the nuts and volts, your more complex chipset will always be less efficient than a more streamlined chipset could be, and on cheap Android systems, efficiency counts again.
I've got some ARM optimized native code in some of my Android code where needed. Yep, I've included a compatible bytecode version for platform 'independence', and that unoptimized crap is what'll execute on your Atom chip because the tiny fraction of market share of Android that's powered by Atom isn't enough to warrant me re-writing specific code just for it. In otherwords: You're pissing away your amazing feats in engineering just because of the BS instruction set -- My apps will run worse on a similarly spec'd Atom (or x86 desktop CPU -- yep, I multi-boot w/ an Android x86 port). I mean, Android is a new platform with new applications -- You don't have to be tied to x86 opcodes anymore!
Is it just a pride thing? Hell, if so, then come up with an even better set of instructions than x86(-64) or ARM and blow everyone away. No, Itanium wasn't it, besides HP originated that... Come on, I know you can do better than this -- but you keep trying to prove me wrong.
Oh, wait. Nevermind. I see the Microsofties you mentioned there. So, Android is basically just a threat to get a better volume license deal from MS? Android is a bargaining chip? You don't care if it runs apps like shite and you're actually hoping Windows will seem faster by comparrison to drive sales? Sad times...
I've been using Android on a Transformer for a while and it's decent. But the apps just aren't quite ready for it. Still, the overall experience is a little smoother than Windows 8 RT and there are tons more apps for it.
But Google is trying to push Google Chrome on laptop-like devices, and if they don't fix the issues with Android on laptops, it's just not going to work, since they control the market and they set the standards.
Hey all,
You can all download the latest builds here: https://01.org/android-ia/downloads.
Hope everyone likes it!
Part of the problem is thinking there is only one problem here. Not is there only more than one problem: the problems are multidimensional, dire, and insoluble in the context of "what Microsoft product rescues us"? Certailnly there's a Microsoft guy well placed to guide: but why? .
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Perhaps someone here can tell me. Everyone complains that Android is not a complete OS. However, it is based on Linux. How hard would it be for Google to use code from Linux to gradually expand the features/capabilities of Android until it approached full functionality? [With the underlying idea being to bring it along slowly so that the userbase could learn to use it gradually rather than be exposed to the complexity of full Linux all at once]
Anyone who likes Chrome OS can just use "Chrome for Android". https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/mobile/android.html It's not exactly the same as running straight Chrome OS, but it's close enough. You get the best of both worlds.
And you have an odd definition of "off topic"
This article is about Intel and white label manufactures using Android, in response 3 consecutive drops in sales of Windows, using price as a catalyst. Apple have products in this market...the macbook Air, they could have competed on price (or licenses their OS to others that could)...but never have since launch 1976.
The bottom line is Apple could have produced an iOS device (I do mean iPad) *with* a keyboard (with the appropriate software tweeks), and cut the price across its product range to create market share focussing on down the line profits from the Apple store. That has more interest to me than iTV or iWatch. Instead they hand another market over to a competitor.
The point on any level that a overpriced tablet even with a clunky solution is the same as good value laptop, is living in a fantasy land, real world metrics as opposed to "my mum comments" show this to be the case.
Seriously. Isn't this more or less the same thing?
A relative of mine recently bought a laptop that was supposed to arrive with FreeDos, but had Ubuntu 12.04 on it instead.
You should have told http://www.freedos.org/ freedos is available here. I understand the massive growth in people wanting freedos, with its clutter free CLI.
This happens all the time. I would insist that new machines label themselves quite clearly as having Ubuntu inside. To prevent the hordes of freeDos users being disappointed. Perhaps its time for a Class Action Lawsuit!!
Touch apis provide more accessibility for:
1)for the younger kids who don't know how to type and
2)for the disabled
For that reason touch apis are definitely a value-add. I welcome that aspect.
Do be vigilant towards these new devices however. Don't simply buy them. Make sure they support installing Desktop Linux on them up front before buying them. Hound the manufacturers with the question: "Do you support installing other operating systems such as Linux Desktop OS on this device?"
Manufacturers have been diverting the general public's attention away from the fact that they are locking down the hardware preventing owners from completely controlling their device by changing it to run different operating system. RIM, APPLE, SONY are well-known culprits.
Running Linux on Android is not the answer for everyone to preserve their digital freedoms.
Running the genuine GNU/Linux natively on all of these devices is the answer.
Don't be fooled by this Device lockdown. I don't care if you like Windows RT or iPhone OS or Playbook OS? Run them to your hearts content, but the manufacturers should allow device owners to install/multiboot to different os' of their liking along with the digital freedom to install software from unofficial repositories regardless of the OS. RIM(Playbook), APPLE(ipod/iphones), SONY(PS3), MS' XBOX are well-known culprits.
The buyers are in control and should be demanding their digital freedoms or taking their money elsewhere to regain their digital freedoms again.
Just make sure you don't sacrifice your digital freedoms when you buy your trendy new touch device.
Chromebook is a cheap single device from a single manufacturer.
Chromebooks are made by Google; HP; Lenovo; Acer and Samsung; The list of companies producing these laptops continues to grow. As for them being cheap...the Pixel is famously $1299 price was more than six times that of the lowest cost Chromebook, the Acer C7.
I have no idea where Chrome will end up. I suspect that it will be merged with Android where sensible, and I suspect it will start fighting Windows machines from Underneath. google barely advertised these machines, and already they have a great following.
Your post is simply wrong.
Android software is almost entirely java-based. Adaptation to an Intel architecture will be easy
Programs compiled to use the NDK, which is just about every game and probably most photography apps (because to compile third party image manipulation C code like Imagemagick you need to use the NDK?)? Or apps that use third party database solutions?
Many apps people will want to actually use, will involve use of the NDK and as such will not work. In fact the situation is even worse than if nothing worked out of the gate, because people may try a few simple things which will work but then anything complex will fail.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
$200 for an android tablet (these are just tablets with a $10 bluetooth keyboard) is about what I'd expect for a generic, but I've heard nothing but bad about them. Anyone doing this already with one of those cheap Coby's or something from newegg?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Who is driving the demand for computers with tiny screens? Netbooks were an utter fail other than for people who simply could not afford a full-size laptop (people who couldn't pay $550 for a 15.6" screen went to Wal-Mart and got a netbook). The Surface has a tiny screen and a gigantic price and is failing as fast as anything backed by a huge corporation can fail. So who wants computers with microscopic screens? I tried a netbook once and simply couldn't use it. I think anything smaller than a 15.6" screen is painful to use. So far, the market is agreeing with me. Who are all these people who want tiny screens?
I hope you're not referring to the Pixel, because you're off by over $1,000 on the price.
Ok, we can chat here, b/c this is a valid (but not most salient) point.
Office is one of the few things M$ does that people actually *want* to use. I use it among other options.
1. *right now* the 'Office alternative' market is booming. People are using Google docs, Mac's bundled stuff (lame, IMHO), LibreOffice, and on it goes. That's a big loss of market share NOW
2. Since the current situation is a move away from Office as a monolith, anything like the Android/Intel computer will do nothing but speed that transition, b/c it allows a *platform* that is unbiased. Then users have more choice. And, as I stated in point #1, people are definitely willing to try somethign else and the options are there for the taking.
I think M$ will eventually go the way of all MBA/bubble companies...'servies and consulting'...
I'd like to see them keep Office and make it truly good, personally. But that would require some innovation.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Microsoft was successful b/c Bill Gates was willing to play ball with w/e the military/industrial complex told him to do.
All government computers in the 90s ran M$. That's a government subsidy from a practical perspective. Boeng, General Dynamics, etc etc all used M$ b/c that's what their customer (US gov't) used.
THAT'S WHY MICROSOFT WAS SUCCESSFUL
It's a good strategy for a business in theory: Get the gov't contract. It's guaranteed money and your product becomes an industry standard.
The shit of it is, Republitards bounced back and forth between the gov't that *gives* the contracts and the biz that *takes* the contract, so it was a closed loop.
No feedback. So the shitty, user-alienating product kept getting the contract, even though the system was designed to go to the best solution.
That's it. That's Microsoft. That's american business in the late 20th Century.
Thank you Dave Raggett
It's ironic that a bunch of C code probably written and developed on Linux on Intel has then been ported to ARM Android using an NDK such that you don't think that software can be available on Intel Android.
It is true that some app developers have ignored Google's portability guidelines and produce ARM-only apps. The Android on my Atom-based smartphone has an ARM emulator to allow many of these apps to run in spite of the app developers best efforts to treat Android as ARM-only. Of course, the regular Java apps or a native x86 app will run faster.
I'm sure there are a bunch of little games and such that someone will consider must-have. If Intel and/or Google support a concerted release of Atom-based Android devices into the market, I think you'll see app developers scramble over themselves to support them. Just as they scramble to support new Android versions and new tablet or phone devices that have captured any significant fraction of the market.
Hm, this is not a new idea. I've tried a super-cheap Android laptop years ago (can't remember the brand though) and had to return it, because it was completely unable to handle different keyboard layouts with dead keys / accents. Apparently there was no way to patch the software without rooting the device and patching it yourself. Quite an epic fail and the device disappeared from the stores in our country shortly thereafter.
Now that was a long time ago, so I wonder: Has this been fixed? Do international keyboards and keyboard layouts work flawlessly with recent versions of Android?
Get a Raspberry Pi B for ~$50 and a few ribbon connection cables and 4 GB micro card with Raspbian and ... voila.
I am not sure what all the buzz about? We had this kind of "Laptops" 5 years ago - they were called "Netbooks" and as everybody should know they are dead now. If you can not do "real work" on it - you are better off with tablet. Otherwise, there is no way around of having proper laptop with proper OS.
"...but we both can't have our margins in this fight against ARM. We've had a good run and all, but it turns out we like our margins better than you. Again, sorry. Good luck with that Windows RT thing, ya shmucks."
FUNK!
In the 90's this would have been a godsend ( not to mention, impossible )
Honestly I don't understand the point of it anymore.
If I want a $200 device, there's a heck of a lot of used iphones/ipads/android devices out there that are far better than a crappy low end laptop.
What can this do that one of those can't do better, or that a full fledged laptop isn't worth paying more for?
A good portable serial console for a server room is the only thing I can think of, and that's stretching it.
It's pretty sad seeing the PC Industry happily kill itself. It's seems like, other than Apple and to a much, much smaller extent Google, the entire PC Industry has absolutely zero imagination. Just cookie cutter crap stamped out by the millions. This race to the bottom benefits NOBODY.
Why is ultra cheap hardware bad for users? (a.k.a. But but I can buy a "laptop" for $200 for my cat)
Because you have very little to no choice in features/options, it's bottom-of-the-barrel junk components, and it will be treated as a disposable item. In order to hit these price points, everything is compromised; every single aspect of the unit. You'll treat is as disposable because its pretty much ready for the trash right out of the box. The units go from factory, to warehouse, to retailer, to end user, to trash can inside of a year or two, then off to the landfill it goes. It encourages a culture of disposable consumption that wreaks havoc on the environment.
Why is ultra cheap hardware bad for business?
Because it demands that companies compete on razor thin margins, killing competition by forcing smaller manufacturers out of business. I don't think I need to explain the multitude of issues that having just a handful of manufacturers presents.
I like to use the monitor explanation: before HDTVs were ubiquitous, there was a large selection (in terms of resolution) of LCD panels available. We were able to get laptops with very high res. screens. Now because producing everything needs to be produced in the millions of units to fit the razor thin profit model, it's really difficult to find displays that are anything other than 1080 pixels vertical. And just try to find a laptop (other than Apple) w/a decent high res. display. "But I can get super cheap monitors now." Yeah, well I refer you to the paragraph above on disposable hardware.
Honestly, things were better in the Pentium days when PCs costed $2k-$3k. There was tons (TONS) of choice, and the stuff was built like a tank. Now GET OFF MY LAWN!
You are more effective using the crappy hardware to access the good stuff if you can't be sitting in front of the good stuff.
I own a 10" Atom laptop, and I find it convenient to use while commuting as a bus passenger. I can't be sitting in front of the good stuff because the good stuff at home, and I can't use the crappy hardware to access the good stuff because the transit authority doesn't provide Wi-Fi to paying passengers. So I do the video conversion at home and do the steps-that-aren't-video-conversion on the bus.
Actually Android is perfectly fine as an SSH terminal with an add on bluetooth keyboard.
If you're always going to be carrying the keyboard, why not just use a laptop? At least a laptop would let you split the screen down the middle to look at two things at once.
Except it requires root, and rooting a Nexus 7 requires wiping everything from it. If I want to backup so that I can wipe so that I can root so that I can install Linux, is Carbon backup any good?
It more resembles what Classic MacOS would have become had it actually evolved.
Could classic Mac OS have multiple applications on the screen, with overlapping or side-by-side windows? I owned two classic Macs, one from the 68K era and one from the PowerPC era, and Macs have had overlapping windows since MultiFinder. Window management in Android, on the other hand, operates on a model of all maximized all the time because applications are allowed to assume that the screen size never changes after the application is installed.
The crapware vendors donate a buck or so for each installation
Then why don't the crapware vendors test their stuff in Wine so that they can get into the manufacturer's repository?
so providing support for x86 is as simple as adding a line into Application.mk
Provided that the developer is still 1. contactable and 2. willing to do so, as opposed to segmenting the market in order to charge more for the x86 version.
What does ARM have that's analogous to x86's PCI, where the kernel can query the chipset for what peripherals are on the motherboard? I'm not aware of anything like that, and that's why there's no such thing as a "generic ARM kernel" like there is for x86.
Based on what I know from anyone who has bought a keyboard for their Android tablet, by the time you get this nearly half as functional as a standard Windows-install laptop, you'd have shelled out hundreds in app fees, or you're using incomplete foss, or you've installed linux.... This, is NOT a good value.
the multifinder NEVER was as stable as the classic finder all the way up until the point where they discontinued the classic finder
Single-tasking in Classic Mac OS was discontinued in System 7, which came out in the fourth quarter of 1991. It is now the second quarter of 2013, and the UI of both iOS and Android is still using the Switcher paradigm.
I keep hearing that floating windows are coming for Android 5.
You mean like the "desk accessories" of System 1? Besides, Macintosh computers that came with System 6 and had enough RAM could be upgraded to System 7. How many devices that came with Android 4 will get the upgrade to Android 5? I'm told Virgin Mobile is still selling devices with Android 2 for cricket's sake.
The 4G mobile hotspot from T-Mobile USA costs $92 for the device plus $30 per month for service on a 2 GB/mo plan, or a total of $1,172 over the three-year expected service life of a tablet or netbook. I could buy an Ultrabook laptop and use offline-friendly applications for that much.
You realize you have a 6 digit username, right?
I think anything that forces Apple to drop their incredibly high prices, is fine by me!
To be fair it must be pointed out that M$ ran an $18 billion loss in 1998. Subsequently they may have gone over to Enron-style accounting to shuffle the numbers. Now even with all the voodoo economics, M$ is running a loss. Things would be even more bleak without tricks like deferred sales.
So if it were up to just the numbers, they would have been long gone.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.