HTC 'carefully looking' into netbook category, wants to add 'unique value'
By Darren Murph 
posted Nov 9th 2009 10:41AM
posted Nov 9th 2009 10:41AM
Oh, HTC -- never one to dodge the chance to keep us on edge, are you? Half a year after we heard that the self-proclaimed "quietly brilliant" company was working on an Android netbook with T-Mobile, HTC's own CEO Peter Chou confessed during a recent interview that those very wheels were still turning. During the frenzy that was the HD2 launch, he quipped that his company was still "carefully looking into [the netbook] category and how it can be part of that," noting that nothing was official yet due to its desire to really add "unique value" rather than punching out another "me-too" machine. 'Course, if Intel really does revamp its Atom lineup at CES, we'd say this is just about the perfect time for the company to come out swinging -- after all, you know you still find yourself dreaming about the Shift from time to time.
well that looks.... interesting...
OK, how about a dual CPU, dual boot slider? A low-power CPU with a mobile OS for all-day usage, along with an Atom CPU and full OS for power-users.
If they want to stand out from the crowd, they have to offer something that nobody else offers. The original Shift was a move in the right direction, and now they should build on the concept.
Agreed hopefully they ship with Windows 7 and not some hacked skin of android and they should be fine. I could see them making a nice device.
^what he said
reminds me a bit of the Windows XP phone that knocked around the internet recently. HTC could definitely do something using the Atom CPU along those lines, using a Kaiser/Touch Pro2 style slide-and-tilting screen
A dual CPU machine to offer two sorts of computing experiences? Brilliant idea! It surely would be expensive, though.
The original shift was only a very small step in the right direction. The actual delivery on the product sucked. Shame too, cause it was a nice looking device.
At this point, I'm OS agnostic. Until we have multiple dual-boot choices, I'll take any single one to start. I think I'd prefer Windows Mobile 7 w/ Windows 7, but you wouldn't have to twist my arm to buy one with Android w/ Ubuntu if that was the only choice.
Let's get the hardware sorted out, and then we can debate the OS. Actually, with an ARM-based and x86-based platform, you should be able to pick any combination of mobile and desktop OS.
I'm not convinced that it would be that much more expensive than an unlocked smartphone. However, assuming that it was, how much would you be willing to pay for a dual boot device? I'd be willing to pay up to $1000 to have the all day functionality of a smartphone/PDA, along with the capability to run a full OS from time to time.
The jist of the article is that the netbook market is basically saturated. We don't need another vanilla 10"/Atom/1Gb/160Gb netbook. What market is going untouched?
The MID market is basically dead, which I contribute to the fact that they only run full OSs, and have the same poor battery life as your run-of-the-mill netbook, at 3 times the price, and half the screen size.
Give us something that provides the benefits of a smartphone (always on, all-day battery) with the benefits of a netbook (full OS, larger screen), and you may have a winner.
Unfortunately, battery technology is not going to provide a breakthrough any time soon. If it did, we could have our cake and eat it too. However, until that day comes along, we may have to settle for a dual hardware platform.
exactly what i was thinking, but if they did that, it wouldn't be cheap enough to sell well i think.
Yes, we would all love a netbook with a 30 minute battery life that runs at 70 degrees.
There's a reason why anything even remotely interested in mobile performance doesn't use desktop CPU's. Think about it.
The "new" part of the concept is not the netbook. It is the dual OS idea.
Run android and Win7. That gives you instant bootup and long battery life for things like cell phone calls, checking email, PIM. It gives you a full desktop environment and desktop software capability (at the expense of shortened battery life) when running Win7.
The Shift was a rocking idea, just needed a lower price tag to make it a commercial success.
A crunchpad like device, but real!
Haha you totally caught me, Engadget. I do actually sometimes wonder what ever happened to the shift. I mean, that thing popped up WAY before the netbook market became a big hit, and I always thought it was a great idea. Now, granted, it's a bit outdated, but it was announced in what, 20062007? Pretty sweet for its time.
Ditto. Heck, I still think about buying one.
don't do it HTC, I'd rather they make an Android or Moblin smartphone
and if it had phone ability (via bluetooth or something), it would be perfect
I mean Smartbook
I think this would be pretty cool, however I'd rather see this rumored Passion/Dragon device that's been floating around for so long...
On a side note, I went to Verizon yesterday to check out the Droid and Storm2. As an original storm owner, I must say the new storm didn't really do anything for me at all. It wasn't bad but I didn't see any advantage to my current model--I actually thought the clicking of the screen was more difficult to use than the original storm. I thought the Droid was nice, but honestly I really liked the Eris. I really think the sense UI is much better than the stock android on the Droid and I loved the form factor--small but great screen. It was slightly sluggish but definitely livable.
So the point of all of that was to say that I'm really impressed with HTC's UI and I look forward to more of their devices on Verizon. Although I also tried out the Imagio and really wasn't impressed with WinMo on that device.
OK HTC, please listen to my dream spec netbook:
64bit Intel Dual Core CULV Processor
2GB RAM
64GB SSD
Nvidia Ion w/ HDMI out
HSDPA
802.11n
I loved the HTC Shift form factor. Please keep this. Have a dual boot between Windows 7 and Android and let Android browse the media files on the SSD.
My initial thought is that your CPU choice is too costly. I believe the typical netbook user only wants to perform basic web functions, while allowing for a long battery life. An expensive CPU would put a premium on the device, no?
The key of course is balance. How often are you going to use the full OS? How much are you willing to spend above and beyond the cost of an Atom to get the additional oomph?
I'm not sure if the extra cost is worth it. I would prefer two cheap CPUs to one expensive CPU.
The worst thing that could ever happen to the computer industry is carrier-specific laptops.
I've been dreaming of a Shift 2 for a long time. But then again, the HTC rep at GDGT's SF coming out party specifically said they would never do one again. Of course he also said they didn't have any snapdragon phones. I'd be willing to throw down up to $2K to finally have a device which does a full OS as well as basic phone stuff...but this sadly isn't going to happen for another 5 years.
HTC: Just give me USB Host functionality on any of the snapdragon platforms and we'll call it close enough.
I still have my shift. Just upgraded to a 120GB hard drive and Windows 7, thanks XDA. It is amazing how much better the little bugger runs on Windows 7 than Vista. Boot times cut by 80% and the 3G connection is rock solid again. After too many updates in Vista, the damn thing couldn't hold a connection. It was a great idea but a little too far ahead of the technology at the time. It would have been a lot better with an atom processor. An 800mhz cpu and 1gb of ram just doesn't cut it.
I hope they try again, HTC is so good at the "form factor" stuff and it would be sad if they never tried their hand at a new ultramobile PC again. I also agree that a dual boot device would be great. If they could also keep the WM side and offer more access to onboard memory, wifi, bluetooth, etc.. it would be even better than the original.
Instead of a WM side that could be where they install android and allow it to be the 3G modem with Windows 7. That would be awesome.
"Unique value"=profitable. If they can't figure out how to get a premium price for their netbooks, why bother. The profit margin of todays "me too" netbooks is negligible.
Off topic and for the record:
Am I the only one that really enjoys HTC's new commercials?