Om Malik is currently having a look at the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC and has written an interesting piece on his experience with the HP. Om outlines what he is looking for in a mini-notebook and his POV is very interesting to me. Om feels that mini-notebooks should be "cloud computers", or a portable device that uses basically a web browser to do all of the user’s work in the cloud. This fits right in with Kevin’s experiment of trying to live in the cloud exclusively and I was interested to hear that Om is expecting this from his mini-notebooks.
I agree that portable laptops of a smaller form like the Mini would be perfect for a cloud computer but I see their utility as a bit more than Om perhaps. The strength of these mini-notebooks like the HP Mini-Note, the Asus EEE PCs or the MSI Wind is that they can run all of my apps when I need them to. That means that instead of replacing my main laptop for example I can still take the mini-notebook on a business trip when needed. In that scenario it could indeed replace my laptop and make for a lighter bag. Om’s perspective on the mini-notebook or cloud computer is a very valid one and it accentuates what we say often here on jkOnTheRun- everybody’s needs in a portable computer are different. That’s why there is no "killer" portable computer. It would only be a killer device for some of us and not useful for others.
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