It's tough out there playing
second (or
third... or
tenth) fiddle. Just ask
Fusion Garage. Similar to
the path we saw Celio's REDFLY take, Litl's
Webbook is slowly (but surely, we're afraid) creeping towards complete and utter irrelevance, boasting a design that's too niche to gain traction in the mainstream, a hardware lineup that's too last year and a price that's still far higher than some of the more reputable netbooks on the market today. After just six short months on the market, the company's easel-styled laptop has fallen from $699 to $399, but during that same window of time, Intel has launched all new
Atoms, tablet PCs have begun their assimilation on Planet Earth and
HP has purchased Palm. Yeah, that last tidbit has precisely zero pertinence to the discussion at hand, but we bet even the engineers at Litl would've laughed you out of town had you told 'em that would happen back in November of '09.
posted May 16th 2010 2:04AM
seriously, stop teasing me with the HPalm tablet that does not exist...
you did that with slate, Microsoft book... cant take it anymore ;)
@f2000372
do you actually think that HP is just going to let Palm rot and be forgotten? they will have some WebOS devices in no time. I promise.
Hardware is, well, hard. That is why it is called so. You cannot come up like that with a product that is guaranteed to sell, even with the best intentions, the best specifications, and loads of cash. I hope that HP does justice to WebOS and has the whole ecosystem in place when it is ready to launch (full app store, no brainer syncing, etc.).
@JeanMichel Decombe
Hardware is called "hard" because it is difficult? Not because it is tangible, as opposed to software? Really...
@haveyouanywool You know what I meant. It's much easier and infinitely cheaper to build and market software. One guy can do it alone.
(Of course the hard in hardware is for material/tangible/durable; and the firm in firmware is for soft to hard.)
This thing is just another 'thing'. Urgh. Anybody wah ah doubles with slight pepper? Lol.
@Trinijavz What nobody seems to mention or see even.. is they offer an UNCONDITIONAL 2 year guarantee.. Which means you can return in for a FULL refund in 2 years for NO reason.
That seems like a great deal to me. Though, morally questionable.. a more "shady" character.. could purchase one.. use it for 2 years.. when it becomes antiquated.. just return it and get your 400 bucks back. Say you are unsatisfied.
On a side note... does anyone else HATE the fact that their name is in all lower case.. so, when they start a sentence with their name.. it's lower case. It drives me insane... and makes me not want to buy it on principle of that alone.
@Tense Then I believe you don't own any Apple products.
Equating Nokia to a tenth fiddle is an amazing insight only Engadget can provide.
@Herr Synnberg
Really. While linking to a post that says they still have ~40% market share too, how's that tenth fiddle I'll never get.
@Herr Synnberg - typical blogger...not so good with facts, great with hyperbole.
Yep, HP buys Palm, and has still not released a Win7 slate.
@bebop Nor it should have. Windows 7 is not really made for slates. Microsoft needs an OS they can embed onto hardware. I don't know, maybe Windows Phone 7 could work for slates.
@aubreyq
at least, not for a sub $600 tablet. this price basically force it to use Atom processor which is underpowered for win 7.
@qbgabe12
Any tablet with a faster CPU would either be ridiculously big, or have terrible battery life and thermal properties. Thereby proving the OP's point that W7 is not really made for tablets. Which isn't surprising because it was engineered as a desktop OS. Only because MS tacked on some multitouch API's doesn't mean it's a good choice for a tablet.
@drange Dell E4200 is 12" and has a C2D in it. It's a "litl" bigger... but, frankly.. I think it's about the best laptop Dell has ever made. It feels like it weights like 3oz. (It doesn't, but it is light as hell).
This product looks really nice (from that one pic)....but not nice enough to justify it anyway.
Litl Webbook : "i want to be a netbook when i grow up"..(netbooks giggles uncontrollably)
hp buying palm has made hp news so much more interesting.
hp buying palm has made hp news so much more interesting.
@Nimer55 You can say THAT again!
I'd much rather own an Acer Aspire netbook for $100 less. I don't see the appeal of this device even at this new lower price...
@Stewie Vader But...but...Lil' goes so well with "Stewie."
Wait just a second.....I've never seen this form factor. I like it. (looking at it again.) I really really like it. I'm making a mental note to keep an eye on this one....
@clee100 its nothing more than a mini netbook who's screen can flip all the way back, with inverted image. They didn't reinvent the "wheel" here, they just rounded it a bit more
Honestly I actually really like the industrial design of this thing. I also like the wheel and easel concept, a pretty cool addition to this type of device. I like that they put some consideration into the design - which a lot of people tend to overlook. Granted it's no powerhouse, and has pretty limited functionality, but the OS is actually pretty cool and w/ google docs, you could get a *litl* work done (get it, haha). The HDMI out is pretty nice too. At $699, no way...at $399 a lot more likely...but we're talking about $100 shy of the entry iPad, and that's not a hard choice. Get it down to $249-299 and I really think they'd sell well.
@chtown
I also like Litl's attitude and ideasm I hope they are back at the labs cooking the next best thing. I like the fact that you can swing it open in it's own stand, but that immediately asks for a touch screen. It's a perfect computer for my mother: emails and browsing, flip it open and it becomes a photoframe. I tried to buy it but Litl wouldn't ship it to Europe.
@Engadget what about a review of this thing? If you got no time, send it over to me and I'll do it. :-)
@RicoTrevisan Yeah, this product seems a cool little guy. I tend to sit downstairs away from my iMac and use an iPod Touch, but find that to be a bit too small to be convenient.
For me, this product trumps the iPad in that I don't think the iPhone OS looks very nice on the larger screen and this appears to have an interesting GUI.
like
form factor
industrial design
new interface (or os?) design for this form factor/usage
dislike
no touchscreen
3 hrs battery life
$399 is still a bit expensive for this specification
drop $100 and somehow get 2 hr+ battery life and I will get one
i support moms n pops companies like these. hopefully the specs are good. where are they?
@(Unverified) They're near the bottom of http://www.litl.com/essays/hardware.htm
Basically it's your everyday 1.6 GHz Atom netbook hardware but only has 2 GB of SSD storage and offers a remote, HDMI port and a 12.1" screen.
creeping towards complete and utter irrelevance?
I thought it was completely and utterly irrelevant from day 1
Yah, if it drops another $100 it would be totally viable as a photo frame.
But your right, another $100 and you can get an iPad.
Boy oh boy did I forget about this one! Really nice packaging though, look it up.
what is the OS and battery life on this?
Should have aimed for $300 launch price.
Remember that this thing runs a very limited version of Linux. It's kind of like the joojoo. However, both these products are destined to fail because they use intel components to do their software job. If you are going to run Linux, especially a very limited version, you would be much better off using an ARM Cortex A8 (or A9) processor in order to reduce the size/weight/cost/power-usage. 6 months ago this might not be an option without proper ARM flash support, but flash 10.1 is right around the corner. If they went with an ARM Cortex, then they'd reach the necessary price point (~$200) to sell a very limited device like this.
Litl Web... who?
This is the price it should have been last fall.
But $699 for a device with, IIRC, a GMA500?! No way.
Unfortunately for them, the niche this is/was (priced) for now has iPads.
I've never even heard of this.
this crap is just 3 hours battery life, FAIL
Throw the JooJoos down the well.