I honestly expected to see more, and better netbooks at CES. The Cedar Trail platform is a solid one and there’s absolutely no reason why netbooks need to fade away because with a bit of a re-design (thinner, SSD, better connectivity, hi-res screens) they could still control a good segment of the market.
Asus were showing their ‘flare’ netbook in three variants (1025CE, 1025C, 1225B) and the X101CH. The X101CH provides some interesting mobility for the cost but as with the Flare netbooks, there is little attempt to push any other boundaries. It’s the same story with the Toshiba NB510. Lenovo announced the S200 and S206 which come with Cedar Trail or AMD C60. The S200 can be specified with a 32GB SSD but there’s a small battery inside which means you’re looking at 4hr runtime. I suspect this will be a lightweight device although it has an 11.6 inch screen. (I am a big fan of the S205, the AMD E350 powered version from 2011)
Gigabyte has upgraded the netvertible with the T1006M but again, the design remains thick although credit to Gigabyte for offering easy upgrade ports for memory and hard disk, a high-res screen, pre-wired 3G antenna and a capacitive touchscreen.
The only small laptop-style device I did see that was pushing the boundaries was the Novero Solana.
An SSD, convertible touchscreen and 3G are on offer here but there’s no indication of battery life or price yet. Availability is said to be Feb 2012.
My feeling is that by reducing focus on netbooks, some manufacturers will be missing an opportunity to offer very lightweight, low cost sub-ultrabooks with SSD, high-capacity sealed batteries and other features that the ultra-mobile user could benefit from. Right now though, it looks like laptop manufacturers have dropped everything for Ultrabooks.
Check out the videos below though for a look at the latest netbooks and don’t forget there’s the Lenovo S110 (10 inch) HP Mini 210 (10.1 inch) and MSI Wind U180 (10 inch) that are going to be available with Cedar Trail too. We’ll get all these in the database.
I would say that Netbooks had its moment, but Microsoft choked the creativity out of it with its highly specific XP license. And now that Apple has seeded the idea of tablets as upscaled phones (i could have sworn this was in the cards ever since Gates walked on stage to present the UMPC), i am unsure if Netbooks have a life any more (outside of giving it to kids, what ASUS had in mind from day one. And from what i can tell locally, that works).
It’s sad and ridiculous. No wonder Apple is taking all the market share. It’s 2012 and companies are still offering 2GB RAM, 32 SSD, 4 hr battery life… it’s like 2008 all over again.
After buying several UMPCs (last one being the Viliv N5), I decided not to buy any new UMPCs until they offer at least something with a little edge at a reasonable price. That’s how the iPad 2 came in handy!
Nope, it’s not like 2008 all over again, for one thing 2008 is when netbooks really kicked off and they weren’t on the decline. Second, in 2008 a high end 4GB could have cost you as much as a 64GB does now. Third, run times for pre-ATOM models was about 2.5hr max, compared to getting 5 to 10 hours on average now.
While Apple has next to nothing to do with the netbook market. So the market share they have doesn’t really deal with netbooks. So your comparing apples and oranges.
Netbook market has slowed but that’s because there is little new and most people who have a netbook don’t need to get a new one. However, they’re still the cheapest solution for what they do provide and we’re only a year away before they finally provide the ATOM with the first real improvement since they first came out.
What has to be remembered then is not only is the market focusing presently more on the mobile and ultrabook markets but the factors that keep netbooks viable is price and usability.
Going ultra thin & light with netbooks means compromises that could well backfire. Like sealed batteries means limited run time per charge vs replaceable batteries that require case designs be strong enough for allowing replaceable batteries but means higher capacity batteries and potentially unlimited run times with battery swaps.
Mind that while netbooks don’t require as much power as ultrabooks, they’re also smaller and that means less room for batteries. So a sealed design could be pretty limited and limited run times is usually a negative for netbooks where people expect more than just a few hours for average use.
Also going ultra thin & light means cooling designs need to be more effective. Even with the lower end N2600 max TDP of 3.5W may be able to go fan-less but without room for a proper size heat sink means heat can still built to too high levels unless the case design accounts for it but that can add cost to the design with either more complexity or materials that may not be as cheap to use.
Meanwhile, many companies know Intel will be radically improving the ATOM in 2013 and the market momentum still remains in the mobile and ultrabook categories. So there isn’t much reason to push netbooks this year but that doesn’t mean we won’t see a lot change in 2013.
Like many of the efforts going into Ultrabooks can ultimately trickle down to lower cost devices like netbooks, which can then start using the same materials and much, if not most, of the parts can be made by the same machines that handle the production of the Ultrabooks for less total costs to manufacturers.
While ARM may have issues getting into the traditional PC market as Windows 8 for ARM may impose too many limitations. Secure boot may not have the option to be turned off as it can be on x86 systems for using non-certified OS. It’s very likely they won’t support legacy programs and may not even have the normal Windows desktop. Windows 8 for ARM may not even come out till close to the middle of 2013, and there is mounting pressure for more and more ARM devices to be sold with locked boot loaders for even Android based systems.
All while Intel may start producing ATOM’s with many of the advantage of ARM like all day computing and lower costs but keeping all traditional advantages by the time ARM does get Windows 8 for ARM.
Though what ARM can offer by 2013 may still be better than expected but even if that happens just means we’ll have more choices by then.
Meaning we just have to patient but however this goes we are likely to see cooler offerings next year, it’s just not going to be that great this year as most efforts will be for making preparations for those next gen offerings.
With every manufacturer and their cousin now pushing tablets and ultrabooks, I wonder when the time will be right for one of them to stand out from the rest with a new idea – an ultraportable personal computer!
Of course that would bring with it all the baggage that general purpose computing implies. No walled gardens, exclusive app stores nor easy straightforward aftermarket monetizing… But with all UMPC manufacturers of the last few years having seemingly left the market, there should be room again for one entity to try once again.
I am waiting for a notebook offered at reasonable cost. They are lit bit epensive thats why i decided not to buy any UMPCs until a great offer come like i talked above.
just to say, you might be albe to run the old original eee pc 900 with 3rd party accus up to 3-4 hrs wifi on and 1 hr more with off. run it in sleepmode and you have an instant on system ready. my old 20 GB modell still is the best netbook to carry around. second comes hp mini 5103 with a hd screen and 3g modem and fast 320 HD and excellent powermanagement (up to 7 hrs wifi on, up to 10 off). another advantage of the netbook design over current ultras – and for me personally quite important) is the formfactor, no way. the key for portability is not flatness, but size. btw i’m able to run any application i need professionally on these small devices. this said they fully substituted any bigger equipment used before. to add another important thing – no tablet to today in the same proce range is capable to run almost any OS or simulator existing. not to speak about double or triple OS installations.