Pining for 2010
Intel doesn't intend to launch certain entry-level products, including next generation Atom platform called Pine Trail, until early 2010, according to Taiwanese website Digitimes.
The likely result of this will be a delay in the launch of new netbooks from market leaders Acer and ASUS, and a prolonged focus on ‘thin and light' notebooks based on Intel's CULV platform.
The site also reports that Acer had planned to launch a netbook running both Windows XP and Google's Android operating system, but has concluded the demand for Android is not yet sufficient to justify the launch.
A lack of new netbooks in the second half of this year could work to the advantage of companies like Qualcomm and NVIDIA, which are expecting products based around their own low power processor platforms to start appearing later this year.
Being based on the ARM - as opposed to x86 - instruction set, they don't run full Windows. However, in the absence of many shiny new netbooks that do, they may well take this opportunity to try to convince the market that Linux-based alternatives, like Android, do the job perfectly well on mini-notebooks.
