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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
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
I thought they would have used Tizen above anything else.
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.
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.
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.
I don't want a touch screen. How about saving the touch screen and making a $150 laptop? The touch screen is just unwanted extra cost. I have a hard enough time keeping the screen clean without people intentionally smearing their grubby fingers across it. It's definitely not anything I want to pay extra for.
Netbooks are quite useful. I'd also like to see more ARM units with long battery life. The netbook form has more room for battery than a tablet does so there really aren't any excuses any more for not having 10 - 12 hours of battery. That's enough to get through a full day at a conference or long flight with transfers.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Why not Ubuntu instead of Android, to get a more full-featured laptop?
Android doesn't even have official printer support.
You're probably right.
But I'm surprised that we don't see more maneuvers like this. If Microsoft's reaction is so reliable, I'd expect a string of news like "General Motors eyeing Linux", "Walmart checking out RedHat" and so on. Usually, big companies are not shy about squeezing a supplier.
C - the footgun of programming languages
Uhmm, General Motors, Wal-Mart and pretty much all financial institutions already use Red Hat. Windows is a niche product running on about 1 billion devices. The other 100 billion devices run Linux.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
200$ 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.
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!?
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.
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.
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.
Not only do you get a shell
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jackpal.androidterm
you get a complete command line based environment with compiler, editor, etc.:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spartacusrex.spartacuside
It doesn't require jailbreaking or root, and it's even free.
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]
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.
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
(N.B. if you add a link you will get more clicks on your product; since for once the spam is on topic I added one for you - ed. )
There's always been a bunch of these interesting cheap things on ebay (and on some of the Chinese sites or other auction sites). Some of them even seem to come from top rated sellers who seem to sell quite a few of them (not this example.. but who knows). I wonder if the reason they don't get through to shops in the West is simply Microsoft? Has anyone tried them? (Search Ebay for "Android Netbook" - you will find plenty).
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();