GigaOM » eee pc

Stick a fork in netbooks, they’re done

Kevin C. Tofel — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:10:36 +0000

After beginning in late 2007, the age of netbooks is coming to close. Acer and Asus, the two remaining top-tier manufacturers of the small laptops, are ceasing netbook production today, reports The Guardian’s Charles Arthur. For a computing market that appeared to have unstoppable growth early on, the rise and fall of netbooks happened quickly. It should remind us that disruptive new technologies can quickly erode a product’s market share, and even, the viability of a product class itself.

An example of this change can be seen in one of my most-read posts ever here on GigaOM. Out of more than 7,500 posts I’ve written, one of my most viewed is “A quick guide to netbooks” from September 2008. No matter what news was hitting the tech cycle, this post on netbooks kept finding its way in front of readers who searched for netbook information on the web. Even a year after publication, the post was appearing on a daily basis near the top of our stats. Then 2010 arrived, and with it, the first credible consumer tablet in Apple’s iPad.

Charles Arthur provides four reasons for the netbook’s demise, but by analyzing the stats of my netbook guide post, I suggest that the revamped tablet market was the beginning of the end for netbooks. True, these are completely different products in terms of form factor, design, operating systems and supported applications. But both share an important commonality: relatively inexpensive mobile computing devices.

Let’s face it: There are only a few reasons that netbooks even became a “thing.” You could get one for between $200 and $400, you could run the apps you wanted to, and you could take them everywhere. The idea of a small, cheap laptop that ran all the same software your larger notebook or desktop could run was appealing at a time when the global economy began a huge downturn. The timing of netbooks was simply right.

I know because I bought the very first one available in 2007 and used it to cover the Consumer Electronics Show in 2008: All of my posts were written on a small Asus Eee PC. I later upgraded to an MSI Wind machine and then a $399 Toshiba model in 2009. For half the cost of a full-sized laptop, I had something more portable that lasted longer on a single battery charge.

The idea of a netbook then morphed into a smartbook: A small laptop that ran not on Intel chips, but ARM chips used in smartphones. The concept was great, but with Apple’s iPad introduction in 2010, I immediately suggested that smartbooks were DOA; a point that Qualcomm confirmed nine months later.

Some current netbook owners will continue to cling to their device, mainly because it meets their needs of Microsoft Windows applications in a small laptop, and that’s fine: One should always use the best tool for the task at hand.

Our tasks, in terms of computing needs, however, have changed. Legacy application suites are getting replaced by a seemingly never-ending stream of smartphone and tablet applications. Cloud services for productivity and storage are the new Microsoft Office and hard drive. Touch computing is becoming the norm, not the exception, and mobile operating systems are optimized for it. Simply put: Netbooks are just another example of old-school computing and world is moving on. Farewell netbooks; it was fun while it lasted.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Google’s Chromebook initiative as it can appear on the surface that the company is continuing to offer a netbook experience: Low-cost, small laptops that run for hours at a time. There’s one key difference, however: The entire interface is a modern desktop browser that works as a jack-of-all-trades for creating and consuming web content. Best of all, the simplicity of the software brings all the benefits of the web without the distractions, upkeep or power-consuming features brought by a legacy desktop environment.

That doesn’t mean I think Chromebooks will take over the world as netbooks were expected to do, but the different software approach and deep integration with Google services give Chromebooks a chance to survive beyond the age of netbooks.

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CES Highlights: New Mobile Concepts and More

Sebastian Rupley — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:53:02 +0000

As day two of CES unfolds, lots of innovative new products and initiatives are showing up, including as-yet-unseen concepts for netbooks and mobile displays, numerous type of tablets and more. Here are some of the most notable debuts.

Lenovo and others are demoing portable computers equipped with new PixelQi display technology. These LCD displays operate in two modes — a normal color mode like most laptop displays and a non-backlit mode that allows viewing in bright light. Once the backlight is turned off the display is viewed in a black-and-white mode like that used in traditional e-ink readers.

Yahoo has announced that it’s releasing a kit to allow developers to create their own TV widgets. It’s aiming to put “ConnectedTV” widgets on living room media devices, Blu-ray players, and cable and IPTV set-top boxes.

Rovi (formerly Macrovision) arrived at CES this week armed with its new TotalGuide digital programming guide (formerly “Liquid”) and a slew of new content partners, hoping to win over the hearts and minds of CE manufacturers looking for a way to integrate traditional TV content alongside broadband video. Check out NewTeeVee’s take.

ASUS has debuted a number of new notebooks and netbooks. Its EEE PC Seashell KR Collection features glitzy designs done in collaboration with designer Karim Rashid. The pink-and-black systems run Intel N450 processors, are 802.11n-ready, and have up to 250GB hard drives, but it looks like the cases are the real selling points. ASUS also showed off a concept netbook that unfolds into a big-screen tablet, and there were lots of other interesting portable computers shown.

Meanwhile MSI is demoing a dual-screen netbook prototype with touchscreen features and no physical keyboard. The 10-inch screens are capable of 1024 x 600 resolution, and a displayed keyboard provides tactile feedback as you type on it.

Ford’s new MyTouch platform, which will appear in the 2011 Ford Edge, puts an 8-inch touch-screen in the center of a dashboard. It provides for navigation and climate controls and more. You can also plug in a 3G modem and connect to the Internet. GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d) also has an analysis of Ford Sync, a new communication and entertainment platform for cars that responds to voice commands.

Dell has showed off its first-ever tablet, based on the Android OS, with a 5-inch screen. It joins numerous other tablets, including an HP-branded one that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer displayed during his keynote, and another Android-based tablet, with a 7-inch screen, from Motorola.

And Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced last night that the company is bringing the Moblin mobile Linux operating system and the Moorestown chip to smartphones. He showed the LG GW990 phone running both and performing complex multitasked chores. LG and Sprint also unveiled new Lotus Elite and Rumor Touch smartphones. The Lotus Elite can play voice mail messages without the user having to open up the phone.

MSI netbook image courtesy of Gizmodo.

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Think the iPhone Keyboard Sucks? Think Again

Darrell Etherington — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:00:39 +0000

One of the most common complaints I hear from non-iPhone users (and some who have them, too) is with regards to the on-screen keyboard. BlackBerry users revere and lionize their precious hardware QWERTYs, and people with landscape sliders from LG and others never stop rubbing it in. I’ve been a staunch defender of the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard all along, often pointing out that tests have found typing on it to be faster and more accurate than even on a full-size Palm QWERTY.

Now I have some more ammunition, thanks to a test run by Crave UK. Apparently they have very little to do with their time, so they came up with ridiculous scenarios for tech performance tests. Their latest involved an Apple iPhone, an Asus Eee PC, and a Citroen C4 (which is a $1.47 million rally car, in case you were wondering). The task was to type “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog,” that old stand-by sentence containing every letter in the English language that I used to type until my fingers were raw in Grade 9 high school business class. Not so hard, right? Right, when you’re sitting at a desk, not moving. Different story in a rally car running at top speed and taking turns.

CNET has the entire amusing video of how things went, but I’ll cut to the chase: iPhone wins handily. Reason? The auto-correct feature (although I suspect the iPhone’s being a true handheld device also has something to do with it). Good thing, too, because I can’t count how many times I’ve been in a rally car and thought to myself, “This would be a great time to type out my resumé.”

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What's In Your Bag, Kevin C. Tofel?

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:00:45 +0000

Call me crazy, but I love to see what folks have in their gear bags. Personal computing is exactly that, personal. So I find gear bags like snowflakes: No two are alike. We all have differing needs in our travels, so that’s how it should be, right? After seeing Simon and others here at WWD spill the contents of their bags, I knew I had to jump in and share mine as well.

Unlike most people, my kit tends to change frequently. I vary the contents of my bag based on my needs, and my gear has evolved as I’ve ridden the trend from notebooks to UMPCs to netbooks and back again. Let me give you a glimpse as to what I mean, as my bag has evolved many times in the past few years.

Tablet PCs and UMPCs

In late 2004, I decided to move away from traditional notebooks and try my hand at using a Tablet PC. That led me to a Toshiba M205 convertible Tablet PC that I used the heck out of. It was my everyday travel computer that could be used with the keyboard, but could also handle handwritten input. At 4.5 pounds, it was considered reasonable to tote around. While it had integrated Wi-Fi, I’d often USB-tether a 3G Windows Mobile phone for EV-DO Rev 0 speeds. A computer and phone were all I needed.

That worked well for a while, but in early 2006, I got bitten by the UMPC bug. This disease affected me so profoundly that I purchased new Samsung devices as fast as they could pump them out. I started with a Celeron-powered Q1, upgraded to a Pentium-powered Q1P in 2007, and finally ended my run with an Intel Core Solo inside the Samung Q1-UP that I still own. Each of these devices offered a 7-inch touchscreen display and supported the Tablet PC features I embraced prior. The most recent model afforded me a higher-resolution display at 1,024×600 and also included a split QWERTY keyboard. It turns out that I didn’t need that feature, though, because my gear bag gained a very useful device in 2006: a Think Outside Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard.

Stowaway keyboard vs. traditional notebook keyboard

I took this keyboard everywhere with me because it worked with all of my devices: UMPCs and phones alike. It was a permanent fixture in my gear bag for months, although it was eventually replaced by a newer model in the Sierra. The main reason for the replacement? The newer keyboard added a dedicated row of numeric keys but didn’t really add much extra weight or size.

At the same time, my mobile kit was changing. The phone eventually got replaced in 2005 by a 3G USB modem card. While some folks prefer embedded 3G or PC Card/ExpressCard solutions, I like carrying USB WWAN adapters because they’re small and work with all of my devices.

Netbooks Come of Age

This type of setup worked great for me wherever I went. Unfortunately, the UMPC market generally dried up and heralded the coming of the current netbook craze. Like any good geek, I jumped on the trend right away and purchased the original Asus Eee PC 701 in November 2007, replacing my UMPC and separate keyboard. Hence the gear bag consisted of a netbook, USB card for 3G connectivity and, occasionally, a small digital camera.

Netbooks really came of age in 2008, so it was time to say goodbye to the small keyboard of the Eee PC and hello to an MSI Wind U100 netbook that I still own. The Intel Atom CPU is much better suited to mobile computing: I routinely see five hours of run-time with the U100. It also offers a larger 10-inch screen and better keyboard than the Eee PC. Although I was able to cover the entire 2008 Consumer Electronics Show with my Eee PC, the Wind makes for a more enjoyable work experience. These days, when I want to travel light and only need to work for four hours, the Wind has a place in my gear bag along with a USB727 adapter for 3G. The cheap point-and-shoot I used to carry was replaced by a Canon EOS Rebel XSi last year.

Back to Notebooks

Over the past year, we’ve been doing more video over at jkOnTheRun, so when I know I’ll be editing vids, I take a current-generation MacBook with me. Like the Wind netbook, I can get four or five hours of run-time, so carrying my second battery essentially gives me an entire day. Videos are recorded in 720p high-def with an inexpensive Kodak Zi6 handheld. It has a USB interface, so I can easily transfer video files to the MacBook, edit them, and then upload them over 3G or Wi-Fi.

My gear bag has changed over time, but it has always met my needs. I’ve always made sure that I have the right tools for my tasks. If I simply need to write content, I can throw the MSI Wind in my bag and go. My 3G adapter is always in the bag; the only time it leaves is when I’m using it. When I want the comfort of a “big boy” laptop or know that I have video work, my Wind is swapped for my MacBook as it only adds 1 pound of weight to carry over the netbook kit.

Before I forget, I should mention the bag I carry. Sadly, it’s not one that most of you can get your hands on, however. Each year that we cover the Consumer Electronics Show as press, we’re given a padded backpack from the Consumer Electronics Association. It comes in handy to slog all our gear and also to hold the many pages of product documentation, datasheets and maps of the Las Vegas Convention Center. It turns out that this has become my bag of choice. Why? Simply because the oversized backpack has a removable messenger bag: I just unzip it and I can easily carry my small gear safe and sound!

What’s in your bag?

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What's In Your Bag, Darrell Etherington?

Darrell Etherington — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:00:22 +0000

On Monday, Simon kicked off our series on the gear we use to do our jobs. Truth is, because there are no IT departments for freelance web workers, there are as many unique gadget combinations as there are people doing the work. I love hearing all about someone’s kit, and hopefully sharing some of my own suggestions will be useful as well.

When I’m on the road, I’m much less concerned with computing power and storage, and much more occupied with how to make my load as light as possible. I actually try to make sure that I have shampoo, toothbrushes and even some clothes stashed at friends’ houses in areas I travel to frequently so that I can get away with just packing a single backpack and nothing else. Obviously, this can’t work if I’m living out of a hotel, but most of the time a backpack and a small bag is all I travel with.

The Standards

In the backpack (which is a Victorinox Swiss Army with only one large pocket, and one smaller one. I don’t like a laptop pocket because it adds bulk), I will generally carry my 13-inch black plastic MacBook, which I got approximately two years ago now (still using the original battery, although I’ll probably need a new one soon). Sometimes, if I want to travel lighter, or I won’t be gone for that long, I’ll sub-in my Asus Eee PC 1000HE, though honestly I prefer the MacBook in almost all situations.

I don’t use a mouse or external keyboard with my MacBook, unless I have it hooked up to a television for whatever reason, but that happens so rarely that I generally don’t take those peripherals with me. I have a SimpleTech Black Cherry 320GB portable HD that goes in the bag if there’s a specific need for more storage, and an LG Slim DVD super drive for when I’m using the Eee PC.

A recent acquisition is my LaCie Iamakey 8GB USB flash drive. Honestly, I bought it because of the design, since you can easily find more storage for $40, but I never regret it. It’s durable, works great on a key ring and it’s a nice talking point when strangers notice it.

My iPhone is the most consistently present element of my gear. I recently posted about how BlackBerry’s new App World made me doubt my choice somewhat, but there’s still no way I could ever give it up now that I have it. Even if all my other gear was sidelined, I could get the job done using the iPhone alone if I had to. It would take me a lot longer, but I could do it.

The Occasionals

Some items only get a spot in the rotation on the odd occasion, but when they do, they make all the difference. The most important among these are all imaging devices.

First, there’s my Canon Rebel XT digital SLR camera. Originally purchased for travel, I use it much more for work than for play these days. If I used it just a little more often, I’d consider upgrading to the upcoming X1i. I opt for one of two bags for my XT if it’s along for the ride. Either the Lowepro Topload Zoom 1 if I only need the camera and a single lens, or the SlingShot 200 AW (also from Lowepro) if I need the whole shebang.

In addition to my camera, I have two Wacom tablets to which I’ve grown quite attached. The first is a 6×8 Graphire4 that was once my only tablet, but that now generally serves as my travel device if I feel I need one on the road. The other is my mainstay, a 12-inch Cintiq 12wx with a built-in display. It was an expensive piece of kit, but it totally changed my graphic/photo workflow and I find it hard to go back to the Graphire4 on the few occasions that I have to. I take it with me if absolutely necessary, but it basically requires a second laptop case in order to carry it around, so it isn’t exactly the ideal portable solution.

That’s my gear. This feels a little bit like an extended piece of gadget porn, but I suppose that’s one of the reasons we do this job. It’s both a blessing and a curse, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What’s in your bag?

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Now AT&T Is Offering An Unlimited Plan For $99

Om Malik — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:00:19 +0000

OK we’re not even done with the Verizon flat-rate phone plans news announcement and here comes Ma Bell with its own $99-a-month unlimited offer.

The plans will be available to new and existing wireless subscribers for $99.99 a month for unlimited U.S. calling on all devices with no domestic roaming or long distance charges. The plans can be combined with any current wireless data plan to give customers the ultimate in wireless freedom. The new plans, available Feb. 22

By the way, this unlimited plan is for voice only. No changes on data and SMS pricing, which still cost an arm and a leg. Hah! Why it was only yesterday that I was wondering how long it would take AT&T and T-Mobile to respond to Verizon’s plans. As someone just said, competition is a bitch ;-). Plan details are below the fold.

The following information is from an AT&T spokesperson

* Unlimited Voice Only: $99.99 unlimited voice only for standard wireless phones (note: smartphones/iPhones/PDAs also require an additional data plan)
* Unlimited Voice and Text Only: $119.99 for unlimited voice and text, picture, video and instant messages
* Unlimited Voice and Data (email and MEdiaNet) Only: $114.99 for unlimited voice and unlimited data for a standard wireless phone (excluding smartphones/BlackBerry and iPhone)
* $129.99 unlimited voice and unlimited data for a smartphone/PDA/BlackBerry on consumer email
* $144.99 unlimited voice and unlimited data for a smartphone/PDA/BlackBerry on corporate email
* Unlimited Voice, Data and Text: $134.99 for unlimited voice and text, picture, video and instant messages and unlimited data for a standard wireless phone.
* iPhone with Unlimited Voice: $99.99 unlimited voice + $20/$30/$40 data package (Note: the unlimited voice option will not be immediately available in iTunes. However, customers can select one of the existing plans in iTunes, then call us to switch, at no charge, to the unlimited voice plan.)

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