We’ve been looking for ChromeOS to hit the shelves for a few months now and it looks like Samsung may be one of the first shops to pound out a small, COS netbook with a low-power processor. This mock-up describes a 1.5GHz machine with Atom N550 and 2GB RAM with a 1280 x 800 display. The stats come, from all places, a bug report from the Chromium Google Group. → Read More
It’s rare to find a netbook that I’d actually like to own but this tiny, Linux-powered netbook is a serious contender. Powered by an ARM Cortex A8 chip, these wee things last 13 hours on a charge and have 8GB internal storage and an SD card for expansion. It has a 10.1 inch display and cost $229 for the “Slim” with a smaller battery and $269 for the one with the bigger cell. → Read More
Acer clearly didn’t get the memo that netbooks are dead. The latest update to the Aspire One line brings modest updates. Perhaps they know something we don’t. → Read More
Acer CEO Scott Lin believes netbooks are not dead and that they’ll see about 40 million units sold in 2010 and a similar number in 2011. He expects the high performance Atom N550 from Intel to increase speed and reduce price to about $300, which is pretty darn cheap. → Read More
Well what do you know? Netbook growth is so low right now that in a recent report by NPD, Morgan Stanley Research lists last months growth as a negative number. That’s right, people are apparently selling the notebooks back or something. (not really, but no one is buying netbooks right now)
Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty’s report is intended to show the state of the netbook market and since the iPad was announced, netbooks declined steadily. She states that the iPad is partly responsible to the loss sales. August saw a 4% decline over last year’s numbers and apparently September will produce similar numbers. If the back to school spending spree can’t save netbooks, nothing can. Not even Santa. → Read More
If you recall, the AC100 from Toshiba is one of the first Android netbooks. Running 2.1, this twee netbook costs a little under $500 and Electricpig found it to be acceptable but not, obviously, amazing. → Read More
If you want a netbook but have been holding off for something cheap and cheerful, here’s your chance to pick up Asus’ 160GB netbook. It’s the standard Intel Atom N270 1.6ghz with 1GB of RAM, a 10.1″ display, and Windows XP. You can pick it up from CircuitCity.com for $219. You better hurry though, this deal expires on the 25th. → Read More
Gateway announced their latest line on netbook machines today, using AMD’s NEO processors and and ATI graphics. Gateway is looking to make netbooks capable of handling HD video, while maintaining the small size and weight of an ultra-portable system. → Read More
Google’s planning on launching Chrome OS this fall. We found that out yesterday. We also speculated that it’s likely that there will be hardware partners in place with Google Chrome OS tablets or netbooks ready to go as well. It seems that’s probably what’s going to happen. → Read More
Maybe the standard Sony Vaio P is a bit pedestrian for your taste. It’s just not enough, right? Well then. How about one covered with crocodile skin? It’s supposed to be a digital clutch anyway. → Read More
People might not be buying houses and cars at the pre-recession levels, but laptops are flying off the shelves led by netbook sales. (Quiet, don’t tell John. He hates netbooks.) → Read More
It looks like people are still buying computers. Research firm iSuppli Corp believes that netbooks and Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage (CULV) notebooks are poised for significant growth in 2010. Notebook PC shipments overall are expected to hit 209.5 million this year, up 25.5% from last year. In particular, sales of netbooks, or smaller and cheaper versions of a notebook, are expected to grow 30% to 34.5 million units. Meanwhile, CULV notebooks are expected to reach sales of 14.5 million units this year, a whopping 93% increase. → Read More
Dear people who yelled at me when I said netbooks were garbage: I was right. IDC is reporting that sales of netbooks running the Atom platform are flat. Why? Well, first off people have a little cash so they want to buy something nice for themselves instead of a $350 junkbook. Competition from Netbooks that use processors from United Kingdom-based ARM–commonly referred to as “smartbooks”–and tablets, such as the iPad, will also be a factor in the Atom-based Netbook slowdown, Rau said. In the first quarter of this year, Atom processors as a percentage of Intel mobile processors fell to 20.3 percent, compared with 24.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and 23.5 percent in the third quarter, according to Rau, citing figures to be published later this week. “Pretty much all of last year, it was in the 23, 24, 25 percent range. So, 20 percent coming into Q1–that’s a noticeable change,” he said. → Read More
Not surprisingly on Apple’s earnings call today, there were a lot of questions about Apple’s newest product, the iPad. And I do mean a lot — it seems that about half of the questions were about the product. Unfortunately, neither Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer nor COO Tim Cook gave many answers about the product. Their standard line was that there wasn’t enough data yet to draw any conclusions. But Cook did slip in a few interesting statements about the device.
When asked about Apple’s recent decision to delay iPad shipments to Europe, Cook candidly said that U.S. demand for the iPad “has shocked us.” He noted that it’s a good problem to have, and that there are no production problems — Apple simply underestimated how popular the device would be right off the bat. Apple announced that first day sales surpassed 300,000 and that first week sales were past 500,000. But since then, they haven’t said much. Some estimates put sales past 1 million already. → Read More
If you bought a netbook recently, it probably came the decidedly hampered Windows 7 starter. You might have eyed the other version of Windows, but maybe you didn’t want to shell out the $79 for the Home 7 Premium. Good news for you, Microsoft is running a special promotion that will allow you to upgrade for the low low price of $49.99. → Read More
Not long after Acer announced last year that it was launching an Android netbook did the company unveile the first-of-its-kind Acer Aspire One D250. Then just yesterday Acer’s mobile product manager Martino Mombrini let slip that an updated model is on its way. The D260, like its predecessor, will also be able to dual boot Android and Windows. Not much else is currently known about this netbook, except that the chassis is getting a redesign. But wait, there’s more. → Read More
Short version: There’s lots of mass produced, low quality, netbook sleeves and bags out there. Generally speaking, you get what you pay for. But what about something made by one guy, his sewing machine, and a dream? Can a home made product sold on the internet hold up to the same standards as products made by Crumpler, or Timbuk2? Can the little guy be competitive in the market with companies that spend more on staples than what he spends on materials a year? I say: yes. → Read More
I’m not sure how useful this will be, but it sounds interesting. Chinese manufacturer Creation Tech is selling a 7 inch ultra mobile PC for $65. The specs aren’t very impressive, but for that kind of money what do you expect? → Read More
MSI has sold millions of their Wind series of netbooks. Let’s all give them a round of applause shall we? But what does this mean for you guys? Good things, as luck would have it. Instead of some useless, commemorative award, they roll out the U135 model. And unlike most “Yay us!” products, this one actually has some worthwhile upgrades under the hood. → Read More
This is technically a DIY project, but I don’t know how many people are actually capable of doing this modification. What’s so scary about it? I dunno, shoehorning a Core Duo processor into a Sony Vaio UX17, one of the smallest netbooks available. Obviously this is a one off, so don’t expect to see it for sale any time soon. → Read More
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