Spot the netbook
We are, of course, in the middle of a frenzy of interest in the latest generation of sub-laptops or netbooks, or whatever they’ll be called next. Asus seeded the market with the first Eee PC last year and was apparently surprised at its success, so you’d think it would be geared up to fully exploit the opportunities presented by Intel’s new low-power processor, Atom.
Well you’d be wrong. In spite of an announced launch day of 1st July, it seems you’re more likely to find Lord Lucan than an Eee PC 901 or 1000 any time soon. MSI did a bit better at shipping its first entry into the netbook market – the Atom based Wind, but they’ve all sold out pretty sharpish and no more are expected until the end of the month.
This limited supply from Asus and MSI could turn out to be a big mistake when Acer’s entry into the netbook market – the Aspire One – arrives as it promises to be a competitive offering. When it spoke to HEXUS.channel, Acer didn’t expect to see the Aspire One in the wild until the week of the 21st July, but PC World seems to know something Acer doesn’t.
The week concluded with Intel announcing it had been given the all clear by regulators to sell its new home healthcare product, the Health Guide (below). Among its first customers might be NVIDIA shareholders as details of the full extent of its “weak die/packaging material” problems began to emerge.
