Acer and ASUS reportedly freeze netbook releases until 2010

Looks like even Acer and ASUS are getting bored with the Atom N270 -- Digitimes says the two companies are suspending development of new netbooks until the first quarter of 2010 when Intel's next-gen Pine Trail platform with the Atom N450 is set to arrive. What's more, Acer's also apparently postponing that dual-boot Android / XP machine since it's found demand to be low -- we could have told you that months ago, but whatever. Still, turning off the netbook spigot will be a big step for the two companies most responsible for the segment's overheated product cycle, but don't you worry about them -- they'll have plenty of CULV thin-and-light machines to obsessively iterate in the meantime.

[Via SlashGear]

[artshark Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:34PM]

um, ok? thats 4 months away. is this bad news why?

[Raul7 Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:42PM]

I don't know who taught you to count, but from today to Q1 2010 for sure isn't 4 months.

[Streetfights Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:53PM]

k 5 months. what is this, the counting police?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:08PM]

No, this is the GRAMMAR POLICE, bitch.

"Um, okay. That's four months away. Why is this bad news?"

[KAL326 Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:24PM]

Its not really bad news at all. The bad news is they are really only holding off till them can think of a few new minor changes to the same dead horse to try and justify a new model and what to call it. I think a 5+ month window without a half dozen or more rehashes of the same platform is a good thing.

[One Love Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:27PM]

ION, like a lion, in zion!

[BigD145 Posted Jul 28th 2009 4:09PM]

Definitely waiting on ION. Maybe waiting on VIA.

[One Love Posted Jul 28th 2009 5:12PM]

looks like intel might be scrapping n280 (get it while its hot). It's not on the atom n200 cpu list online.

[tmarks11 Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:35PM]

bummer. I was hoping to see an Atom 330/Nvidia Ion netbook. If acer/asus aren't interested in dropping in the Ion, then probably few others will be either.

[jkenny23 Posted Jul 28th 2009 3:37PM]

Here you go mate: http://74.125.127.132/translate_c?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.dospara.co.jp/5goods_pc/pc_detail.php%3Fh%3Dd%26f%3Dd%26m%3Dpc%26mc%3D1070%26a%3D1&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddospara%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1B3GGGL_enUS332US333&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhjzTKppuhMzOpzi5EwGRuCmJF8DOg

Enjoy your 2 hours of battery life. Just get a laptop.

[daskino Posted Jul 29th 2009 3:33AM]

@justin, where do you see the 2 hours of battery, it is listed as 3.2 hours on their spec page for this machine.

[DanH Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:37PM]

What are we serving tonight? Chicken or chicken?

[One Love Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:32PM]

"Chicken" seems like bigger portions.

[Sibuna Posted Jul 28th 2009 2:22PM]

They choose the third answer. Chicken.

[Chip Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:40PM]

Ignoring the ION chipset is a huge mistake. I've been holding out for an ION-based netbook, and I know I'm not the only one.

[J D Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:48PM]

same here, my cash is ready to be spent on a netbook, but only one with some decent graphics hardware. I'll be more than ready to upgrade from my eee701

[Rinum009 Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:08PM]

me too but doesn't HP already have a solution for HD video with it's Broadcom HD Video accelerator? put windows 7 on that bad boy and I will easily drop 499

[omegahelix Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:24PM]

Same. Been waiting for NVidia ION for ages. NVidia wants to sell it. I want to buy it. What's wrong with these netbook makers? And no, "media accelerators" don't count.

[One Love Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:30PM]

@chip, but maybe intel will fix their graphics woes with pinetrail and "graphics move into processor". Then you wont need ION.

[mabhatter Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:31PM]

except ION is a dead end for them. The next Atom chip won't support ION because of the new layout. Nvidia doesn't want to buy a new license, especially after they already licensed THEIR SLI goodies to Intel. Also, there's no monetary advantage because they pay the same for Atom CPU only as they pay for Atom + chipset .

At this point they're all jockeying to get the "next" chip from Intel a few days before the other guy so using ION just upsets the intel applecart.

Intel is doing its part to straighten out the netbook market for Windows 7 so Win7 netbooks on current Atom (that everybody says works really well) won't compete with the first round of "premium" Win7 notebooks.

[MikeWard1701 Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:39PM]

Haven't Lenovo released an ION netbook?

[Chip Posted Jul 28th 2009 2:14PM]

@onelove - Intel has never been able to produce anything even remotely resembling a decent graphics chipset. What are the chances that all of a sudden the next iteration of Atom will be different?

Acer and Asus would really wait 6 months on the off chance that an as-yet undemonstrated technology might be as good as technology that is available now? I don't buy that. The Zotac IONITX motherboards prove that Atom + ION is a great combo, more than capable of 1080p h.264 playback. It's available now, and it's not expensive. If somebody were to stick a N330 with an ION chipset in a netbook, they would do VERY well. Especially with the competition sitting on their thumbs until next year.

[One Love Posted Jul 28th 2009 3:01PM]

"If somebody were to stick a N330 with an ION chipset in a netbook..."

...they would then start complaining about reduced battery life.

[jkenny23 Posted Jul 28th 2009 3:43PM]

@MikeWard
The S12 won't get an ION till Windows 7 release.

The N450 means the death of ION, since it'll mean no choice but Intel graphics, seeing as it's a 1 chip solution. Better snatch up that S12 when you get a chance, it'll likely be the only one you get.

Hopefully they can make a netbook like the N10J with switchable dedicated/integrated graphics. I'd love to have an N450/Nvidia ION switchable netbook, save on battery life but have that extra horsepower when you need it.

[Chip Posted Jul 28th 2009 4:13PM]

"..they would then start complaining about reduced battery life."

ION uses no more (and in many cases, less) power than the Intel alternatives.

[One Love Posted Jul 28th 2009 5:04PM]

@chip: I was talking about the N330 (8w) sucking the battery juice, not ION.

[shawnwaughgmailcom Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:42PM]

I sense an impending, angry flower, Engadget...

[htd Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:56PM]

intel wants to force them to kill 'ion'?

[Victory Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:58PM]

This is bad news for me, I was waiting to get the next step- Atom for the current pice point in the near future. Or an ion that handles the video as well....

[Shidell Posted Jul 28th 2009 12:59PM]

One more holding out for Ion. Intel's graphics are garbage.

[Victory Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:05PM]

Wait: did anyone else catch that Windows 7 is coming out during this freeze? Maybe they are waiting to see sales trends for a switch from XP -> 7. I know I would rather have a modern OS on a netbook than XP

[tmarks11 Posted Jul 28th 2009 4:00PM]

Why? What do you need that XP doesn't give you? More then 3.2 GB RAM? Get the 64 bit version.... XP works well for me... the first time that Microsoft actually has sold something to me that I like (yes... I am a disgruntled early Win-Me adopter....).

[trueislander Posted Jul 28th 2009 2:04PM]

The Atom 270/280 are the prime reason why I haven't taken the plunge into Netbooks yet. That and waiting for the Ion to usurp GMA graphics, plus Ion's innate ability to handle HDMI out @ 720p+. Just start adding AMD Neo/Intel Atom N450, Ion, HDMI and backlit keyboards and I will gladly part with a handful of 100's.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:07PM]

I'm sure they are waiting for Windows 7 as well.

[amneziac Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:12PM]

I would love dual boot xp/android. Or I could dual boot xp/ubuntu myself

[hmmwv Posted Jul 28th 2009 4:27PM]

Makes no difference cuz we have been seeing exactly the same configuration coming from them for the past 16 months.

[johnkzin Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:21PM]

The dual Android/XP netbook wasn't interesting to me ... but a dual Android/Ubuntu one might be. Or Ubuntu with the Dalvik/Android runtime on top (that Canonical is working on). I suspect I wont need Acer for the latter though, and will be able to run that on my Dell Mini.

What I am disappointed about is: this basically means the EeePC T101 is on hold. I definitely wanted to see a Linux version of the T101 and T91 (with touchscreen rotation properly implemented).

EeePC T101 + (EeeBuntu or Xandros) + Dalvik == gold.

EeePC T91 + (EeeBuntu or Xandros) + Dalvik == silver.

EeePC T91 + (XP or Vista or Win7) == crap.

[One Love Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:33PM]

no.

[patsy Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:35PM]

I wish they'd do one more iteration on the 1005HA. It's an almost perfect machine but lacks a better resolution on that display. 600 vertical pixels simply suck for modern GUIs. Oh, and put in a bigger panel that eliminates that damn wide bezel.

[One Love Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:41PM]

There's one more 1005HGO with built-in 3G. More bezel added for your safety. :)

[electron Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:38PM]

hmm, the creative Zii chip, anyone? ;)

[xnjt9xt1 Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:39PM]

everybody is seriously bored of facebook.

hold everything until the next big site shows up.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 28th 2009 7:25PM]

Oh... sounds like there won't be a $200 netbook from Asus any time soon, and I've been waiting for it...

[Ioannis Posted Jul 29th 2009 6:13AM]

lame. more so for Intel, who are artificially postponing the release of Pine Trail. They think by doing so will increase the sales of their higher margin products. Once you open Pandora's box, there's no turning back