It’s almost like Apple, Google, Samsung and Microsoft have actually launched smartwatches. Except of course they haven’t. But who cares! Analyst house ABI Research has been stroking its collective beard and come up with a forecast for the size of the nascent smartwatch market. And — drum roll please! — it reckons you can bank on more than 1.2M of the wrist-strapped gizmos shipping this year. → Read More
If the huge profusion of mobile handsets, phablets and tablets on display at CES weren’t enough of an indicator, we now have some numbers from Gartner that spell out how the PC industry continues to decline in the face of smaller, cheaper, more portable, and more popular computing devices. Total worldwide PC shipments for Q4 totalled 90.3 million units, a decline of 4.9% over Q4 2011′s 95 million… → Read More
Wow. Netbooks. That’s a blast from the past. It’s like listening to a Maroon 5 song again and going “Wait, is that from that short period when they were ostensibly good or was it from the muddy period after that single about the beauty queen eighteen woman or whatever?” Honestly, it doesn’t matter. Netbooks are the Maroon 5 of electronics: still vaguely recognized but quickly losing… → Read More
Netbooks are still big business for Asustek. So much so that the hotness from 2009 outsold Asus tablets in 2011. Per numbers released at the company’s global sales meeting (and relayed by Digitimes), Asustek expects to ship 4.8 netbooks by the end of 2011 but only 1.8 million tablets. But that’s expected to change in 2012. The roles will be reversed and Asus sees big things for next year. → Read More
It seems like when I’m outside the US, all I see is solar-powered netbooks. Solar powered netbooks here, solar powered netbooks there. Cafes brimming with them, streets littered with them, babies babbling into their solar powered netbooks issued at birth. Okay, maybe not. But this one from Samsung, which has no special specs except for the solar panel on the back, was originally not coming… → Read More
Alan Chang, president of the up-and-coming ViewSonic, recently state that he expects tablets to replace 70% of the entrenched netbook market, a move that makes perfect sense. Netbooks were a strange mistake in the long timeline of computing equipment and the formerly niche tablets are about to push netbooks into the shadows. → Read More
I’ve been thinking a lot about the popularity of tablets and the problems manufacturers face coming up against the iPad. The devices that we see here at CG are all pretty amazing – even the Playbook was a cool, if flawed, device – but no one device seems to be able to grab any traction. In looking back, I see echoes of the netbook craze of the oughts, and the parallels with this “fad” (along with… → Read More
Although the trend here in the US is towards a streamlined, single-input (i.e. finger) tablets like the iPad and Xoom, intricacy and versatility are the word over in Beijing right now, where dual- or triple-boot devices like this Maestro S are (they hope) all the rage. → Read More
Although the netbook craze has pretty much passed over, it’s easy to remember why they were so popular for a while. Look at these little Hercules eCafe guys: they’ve got a unique design, 10.1-inch screen, 13-hour battery life, they weigh about 2.4 pounds and are just over an inch thick. At $250 plus or minus a twenty, who wouldn’t want one?
Well… → Read More
Asus has made its Eee Pad Transformer official. Never heard of the device? It’s been floating around for a few months now, including making a secretive appearance back at CES in January. To quickly describe it, it’s part tablet, part netbook. And here I thought tablets had replaced netbooks. → Read More
The netbook market has more or less dried up; the little things might still be useful for light computing, but they’ve been clobbered by tablets as the go-to device for quick email and web browsing. Could it be that they’re just not cheap enough? Asustek might be looking to fix that. → Read More
First a LifeTouch-branded Android tablet, now a netbook: NEC took the wraps off the so-called LifeTouch Note [JP] today, a netbook with Android 2.2 and a 7-inch LCD touchscreen on board. → Read More
Netbooks… they still make those? I thought tablets killed ‘em a little while back. Meh, whatever. Sony has another one due out before the holidays, only it’ll be released in Japan before it’s released elsewhere. The Vaio Y series, which actually debuted at the beginning of the year at 13.3 inches, will now live life as a happy, productive 11.6 incher. (Though the old 13.3 incher should… → 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
Following Sony, Panasonic also showed [JP] some new computer hardware today, namely the so-called Let’snote J9. It’s essentially a mini notebook with a 10.1-inch screen that runs on Windows 7 Home Premium and has a modular 128GB SSD on board. Another selling point is the Core i5-460M (2.53GHz) CPU that powers the device. → 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… → Read More
How sweet it is to have your madness vindicated. The niche that netbooks once controlled – namely the “cheap portable computer” market – is now being filled with tablets and netbooks, those horrible, horrible little computers, are dying. And this isn’t just me ranting. A real CEO said it! → Read More
Here’s your chance in case you want to surprise your daughter or little sister with a geeky present: Onkyo in Japan has announced [JP, PDF] a super-cute, kid-friendly, and Miffy-themed netbook today. It’s not only the hardware itself that’s covered with Miffy designs, but Onkyo (in cooperation with Bandai Namco) is shipping it with Miffy-powered software as well. → Read More
If you were waiting on buying a netbook because they keep putting out new ones with slightly tweaked specs, now might be a good time to buy. Acer and Asus, the two big netbook and ultraportable PC makers, are taking a breather as they evaluate new hardware options and try to sell all the netbooks stacked up in warehouses throughout the country. → Read More
Hot on the heels of the W100 dual touchscreen tablet, Toshiba also unveiled the AC100 today, a 10.1-inch netbook that runs on Android 2.1. One of the big selling points of the AC100, which is the company’s first Android machine, is that it can remain in standby mode for up to seven days (the eight hours of battery life aren’t too shabby either). → Read More
What’s better than a tablet with one touchscreen? A tablet with two touchscreens. That’s at least what Toshiba must have thought when they cooked up the Libretto W100 with its dual 7-inch multi-touch displays (1,024×600 resolution and LED backlighting for both). There’s no physical keyboard, but you’ll get a virtual one with haptic response. → Read More
Not that it makes that much difference when you’re limiting your tasks to email, browsing, and flash games, but it’s nice to be able to pick between AMD and Intel. The Acer Aspire One 521 is a nice little AMD-based netbook, and now it’s joined by an Intel-based twin — or near-twin. The Aspire One 533 sports a little more chrome, but beyond that it’s the same old mid-range netbook you may… → 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
Well this is good to know. An HP Taiwan VP apperently let it slip that HP is working on mobile devices powered by webOS. It’s a shocker, I know. You would think that after HP spent over a billion dollars buying Palm, they would archive all of the acquired intellectual properties and keep moving forward with Microsoft platforms. Interestingly though, Mr. Monty Wong, VP of Personal Computer… → Read More
Verizon’s latest netbook nearly completes its collection. The 10.1-inch HP Mini 210 offers the N450 1.66GHz Atom CPU along with 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. Windows 7 Starter edition powers the netbook and it can be yours for for $149 with a 2-year data contract. Of course $50 more will get a larger screen and Windows Home Premium with the HP Mini 311. → Read More
Acer has said for a while now that they would be the first to market with Chrome OS devices. Seems like that would be up to Google, but I guess it helps to be willing and able. Sources are now saying that these devices will debut as early as June 1 at the Computex show in Taipei. → Read More
HDMI can be found on a few netbooks right now, but it’s set to become standard next year when Intel’s Cedar Trail-M platform hits the tiny lappies. Most of the current netbooks with HDMI are built around Nvidia’s ION GPU platform, which also drives up the cost. But by moving HDMI support to the CPU, it should come on nearly every netbook. → Read More
Sony Europe today unveiled their newest version of the “ultra-mobile PC” VAIO P, which was teased by the company late last month. And apart from a new design and fresh colors, Sony added quite a number of interesting features and functions. → Read More
Remember Sony Japan’s unusual promotion campaign for an 8-inch netbook (or ultra-mobile PC, as the Japanese like to call these devices) from December 2008? The target group was amused with the campaign. And it appears the marketing coup helped Sony actually sell the Vaio P, as the company today updated its Japanese site with yet another teaser for yet another “mysterious” netbook. → Read More
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