Sony VAIO P set free with XP, still not a netbook
[Via Akihabara News]
ultra-portable posts
Poor, poor AMD. Just when it found a niche above Atom and below the Core 2 Duo with its Athlon Neo, back comes Intel with its new "Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage" platform -- something we started to hear about a few weeks ago. This from DigiTimes' "sources at notebook makers." New CULV-based ultra-portables from the "top-three notebook vendors" (that'd be HP, Dell, and Acer by most accounts) should be hitting shelves in the second quarter of 2009 carrying prices between $699 and $899. DigiTimes claims that the new platform will allow Intel to divide the laptop market up into four segments for 2009: 1) Traditional 12.1-inch laptops and above, 2) Atom or Pineview-based netbooks, 3) Menlow-based MIDs, 4) Ultra-portables with displays between 11.x and 13.3-inches. It's also interesting to hear that the rumored 13.3-inch HP Mini-note coming in June will carry the CULV instead of the Atom Zxx on "Intel's insistence." Well, well, being pushy again are we Intel?
Good news: the price of those 7- to 9-inch ultra-portables are in free-fall as Dell, ASUS, HP, Everex and others race to the bottom. Bad news: your $500ish wad currently takes home a thick, boxy slab. Fortunately, MSI is looking to change all that when it ships the sleek Wind laptop in Q2. In other words, June when Intel ships the Atom processor. Prices are expected to range from $470 to $1,099 for your choice of 8.9-inch and 10-inch panels with 1,024 x 768 pixel resolutions, 2.5-inch hard disk or SSD drive, processors ranging from 1GHz to 1.6GHz, and 1GB of memory. At least that's the last we heard. Word to the wise: wait until summer for your ultra-portable purchase -- competition will be fierce and the waves will be tasty.
Hear that? That's the sound of pitter-pattering little hearts bursting within the executive board rooms of FIC, ASUS, Acer, and HP among others. This after a Compal Electronics official said that Dell plans to launch an 8.9-inch wide-screen laptop for under $499. Taiwan's Compal would of course assemble the goods. The new ultra-portable is expected "as early as June" -- the same time that Intel's Atom processors will launch, coincidentally. Hmm.
While the first generation (and second generation for that matter) of UMPCs fell well short of the bloated origami hype, Compal sees big growth from Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) in 2008. According to DigiTimes, this belief has prompted the giant, Taiwanese ODM to dedicate an entire team to the mobile platform unveiled by Intel in April 2007. As such, MID devices will receive special attention, away from their laptop and UMPC efforts. If nothing else, we find it reassuring that somebody out there can understand the difference between a UMPC and MID device with such clarity.
Remember that other ultra-portable announced during the month of the Eee Pc and Palm Foleo? Right, the 7-inch Via / FIC (parental unit to Everex) collaboration first shown as the NanoBook reference design or CE260 / CE261 when touted by FIC. Having already cleared the FCC, FIC is saying that US and European shipments of the VIA C7-M device will begin in Q1 of 2008 and will include either Windows XP or Linux preloads on that 1.8-inch 30GB disk. It's supposed to be priced similar to the Eee PC which has carved a nice little niche for itself in the ultra-portable market. With any luck, it'll show up at Wal-Mart with a sub-$300 price tag sporting Everex's lovely new gOS.
Last week Asus finally revealed pricing and specs for their much anticipated Eee PC ultra-portable laptop. Anticipated not so much for the specs -- 7-inch LED-backlit LCD, 2 to 8GB of flash storage, up to 1GB memory, WiFi, and webcam -- but for the low, low $199 retail price. Rightly, more than a few of us were dismayed when the entry-level model was revealed to actually cost as much as US$358 in Taiwan and an expected $300 (pre-tax) price when launching Stateside before the month is out. The culprit? Well, according to DigiTimes' Taiwanese component insiders the relatively steep price is in large part due to an unexpectedly high cost for the 7-inch LCD panels. Asus had expected to source the panels for about $15 each but found themselves paying AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) up to twice as much for the hardware. Feel better for knowing? Yeah, didn't think so.










