NetbookTech

This is certainly an exciting time for the netbooks as the industry itself is arguably transforming. As Tim Bajain of PC Magazine notes, more and more companies are working on solutions targeted at the netbook industry – many of which will show up at the upcoming Computex trade show. What does this mean for netbooks and for the average consumer? More innovation; more choices; and hopefully lower prices at the end of the day.

First generation netbooks brought us the concept of inexpensive computing that ran on a familiar platform (Windows XP) that offered just enough performance for the average consumer. As with all things in the computing industry, the industry is morphing and changing and yes.. people are expecting more out of what a netbook can do. As a result, companies are entering into the mix looking to directly address these issues (and complaints).

Case in point – 3D graphics and video performance. People want good quality video playback (and maybe some minor 3D gaming) on their netbook. The solution? NVIDIA introduced the ION platform which combines the Atom processor with an NVIDIA 9400M GPU.  And then last week, HP announced a their new Mini 110 which for the first time offers the optional Broadcom Crystal HD Enhanced Video Accelerator which supposedly supports full 1080p playback (though ask me who has a 1080p HD display on a netbook).

Next example – battery life. We’re become spoiled from netbooks. Latest systems with six cell batteries offer battery life between 5 to 7 hours – more than enough for a cross country flight. But why stop there? Why not develop systems that eek out even more juice from that six cell? The solution? Newer energy efficient processors that combine the functionality of multiple chips into a single processor die – a.k.a. the System on Chip. Next generation systems based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor or the NVIDIA Tegra processor could usher in new levels of battery performance.

These new processor platforms also brings us to the next brave new world for netbooks – getting consumers used to operating systems OTHER than Windows XP. Next generation low-cost systems will more than likely run some variant of Liunx and offer cool new features such as fast-boot or near-instant on. Intel’s pushing on this front with their Moblin initiative and folks – if you thought a 55 seconds boot for Windows was fast.. how about a 15 second boot under Moblin? And it doesn’t stop there. You’ve got the open source community working on hard on the Ubuntu front with their netbook remix edition and then you have vendors also working on customized versions of Linux (like the HP Mobile internet netbooks).

As Tim notes, this potentially points to a “bifurcation of the netbook market.” On the high end, we’ve got Windows-based systems which are slowly turning into small notebook systems. On the low end of the spectrum, you’ll get netbooks running Linux (or possibly Windows CE) with non-Intel-based processors offering features that are just not possible at this point with standard notebooks. (In fact, Qualcomm wants you to look at these new low-end, power-efficient systems not as netbooks but as a new class of devices called “smartbooks”).

Whatever happens, this is clearly an exciting time for netbooks. The market is evolving as more companies enter into the mix and this all bodes well for the consumer.

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