All Things Mobile and Wireless
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EeeUser.com has an excellent detailed (really detailed) review of the Asus Eee PC 900 at…
It is scheduled for release in the US on May 12 (next week Monday). After watching the Eee PC 4G, Eee PC 8G, and HP Mini-note released, I think I am ready to make a purchase of some kind of low-priced ultraportable. I hope this thing actually ships in quantities that doesn’t cause an order backlog.
My old friend and fellow Mobile Devices MVP Arne Hess (the::unwired) brought an HTC Shift ultramobile running both Windows Vista and Windows Mobile to the MVP Summit this past week. You can see it above sitting beside my Dash smartphone and on top of my Apple MacBook. The Shift’s unique design using both Windows Vista and Windows Mobile OSes in a compact package has generated a lot of buzz. However, my issue with it has always been its price point - US$1499. Like most UMPC’s, it is just a bit too high for me to think of it as a mass market item. At best, it is a upper-mid-tier gadget (below the MacBook air) for gadget hounds with cash to spare. Its 3 to 5 minute boot time (as Arne described it) seems a bit on a the slow side too. I’m guessing that HP Mini-note I’m considering may start getting into that boot time range as it accumulates the usual Windows boot cruft (anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc.).
Still, this is the kind of device I’m hoping to see more of - hopefully in the under $800 range in the near future.
Looks like Dell is playing the me-too catch-up game (from Information Week)…
Dell Gears Up To Enter Mini-Notebook Market
The first question is what price will the Dell entry be set at and what features will be available. Asus gambled and took the early mind-share. HP seems to have raised the bar (feature-wise) — although some claim the $749 version is priced too high. The second question is whether or not June is too late to enter the sub-notebook game. The third question is whether Apple and Lenovo (who currently own the high-end sub-notebook mindshare with the Macbook Air and X300, respectively) will enter the low-priced sub-notebook market.
Finally, Microsoft has got to do something to create an OS for the sub-notebook market. Windows Vista is just to gigantic to squeeze into the flash-storage-no-hard-drive boxes. Keeping Windows XP would just an admission of defeat for them. I hope Microsoft comes to their senses and bring back the Windows CE (Windows Mobile) Handheld PC concept updated for the 21st century. Failing in that, they should Open Source Windows 98 Second Edition and let hordes of talented programmers tighten it up and bring it up to date for the sub-notebook market. My old IBM Thinkpad 240 ran Windows 98SE like a champ in a mere 128MB RAM. It would probably take up less space than the Linux distro Asus currently uses in the Eee PC.
I’m still debating whether to buy the Asus Eee PC 900 (unreleased) or the soon-to-be-available HP 2133 Mini-Note. Here are two more good reviews for anyone else considering the HP Mini-Note. Brighthand’s review…
HP 2133 Mini-Note Review
…includes some interesting benchmarks against other sub-notebooks as well as a video comparing an Asus Eee PC running Windows XP booting up side-by-side with an HP Mini-Note running Windows Vista. The Mini-Note takes twice as long to get to a usable screen - about 90 seconds.
The PC World video review…
HP’s New Mini-Laptop Versus a Tiny Asus Eee
…also compares the Asus Eee PC with the HP Mini-Note, but not in the benchmark sense that Brighthand does. PC World focuses more on the physical aspects such as the keyboard (HP’s is better) and the more solid HP casing.
I wonder if it might make more sense for me to buy the HP Mini-Note model running SUSE Linux instead of Windows XP or Vista. Linux should screen on a box with the specs the HP Mini-Note has. Hmm.
I’m still trying to figure out which mini-notebook to buy. The Everex Cloudbook was eliminated a while back based on initial negative reviews. The FlipStart looked interesting. But, it looks like its firesale price was because it is discontinued. I actually bought an OLPC XO. But, while it probably meets the needs for which it was intended (education in developing nations), it is not suitable for my needs (or my daughter’s as it turns out). The thing that started this whole low-end ultraportable trend, the Asus Eee PC, is still my most likely purchase. I’m currently waiting for the new Eee PC 900 to hit the market before buying anything. In the meantime, HP announced the HP 2122 Mini-Note that looks like a contender. jkOnTheRun has an excellent review with lots of photos of this ultraportable at…
jkOnTheRun review- hands on with the HP Mini-Note UMPC
It looks like it will start shipping next week. Debating whether I should buy the HP or the Asus Eee now. Hmm… I wonder if the HP Mini-Note can boot from any USB connected CD/DVD drive if I ever need to re-install Linux or Vista on it?
I should also note that the official Asus Eee PC site is nearly useless for information about their own products. If you want more up-to-date Eee PC news and information, this is the blog/site I head to for Eee info.
Ubuntu announced their mobile version of Ubuntu Linux
…targetted at the UMPC sized devices with flash storage (instead of spinning hard drives) that started to gain popularity with the release of Asus Eee PC and OLPC XO last year. Microsoft needs much lighter weight version of Windows Vista if they intend to stay in the ultraportable game. They basically need a Windows Vista Core with a non-Aero lightweight GUI and a much much faster file system.
I read somewhere that the HTC Shift is near shipping and that the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 was announced. (the first Windows Mobile device from a firm that normally uses their home-brewed Symbian OS). Both devices are amazing pieces of ultra mobile technology. The question is: Are they still relevant? We already know that the Shift will be priced around US$1500. And, Sony Ericsson always charges a premium for their products. My guess is that the Xpreia X1 will be priced between $500 and $1000. With ultra mobile devices like the Asus Eee PC, OLPC XO, Everex CloudBook, and Flipstart already in the retail pipeline for well under $1000, are these new entries too little too late?
To make things more interesting, Engadget reports that Microsoft just bought Danger (the Sidekick people). They speculate that this means there will be a Windows Mobile Sidekick in the future. But, take a look at the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 again. Does that look like WiMo despite it actually does form the base OS? Not really, huh? Have both Microsoft and WiMo hardware vendors lost faith in WiMo? Will the Sidekick platform be the basis of a lighter weight OS and let Microsoft dump the current Windows CE based WiMo in a few years?
I guess we will know more by the end of the calendar year.
The Wired article Linus Torvalds on Why Users Aren’t Flocking to Linux has the Linux creator rationalizing why Linux hasn’t been accepted on the desktop. My message to Mr. Torvalds: Dude, don’t worry about the desktop - Linux has conquered and cornered the ultraportable market! I just went over to ZaReason to check on the availability of the Everex CloudBook and read: We have currently sold our initial batch of Cloudbooks. Please check back after Feb 15th to see if we have received more stock by then. Thank you for your interest. Amazon seems to be able to barely be able to get the webcam “high end” version of the Eee PC (the webcam-less Surf model seems easy to find though). The OLPC folks seems unable to figure out how to get their boxes into the hands of all the people who took part in the Give One Get One (G1G1) program (happy to say we got ours at the beginning of the year). The notebook/subnotebook/ultraportable market is where all the interest is these days. The desktop is relegated to vertical tasks like high end gaming. So, Linux, don’t worry about the Desktop. Linux is making good headway in the UMPC market.
Information Week quotes some Gartner predictions in the article…
More Macs, More Mobile, More Open Source, Gartner Predicts
They predict mobile workers will abandon the notebook form factor in favor of what they term new classes of Internet-centric pocketable devices at the sub-$400 level. Believe it or not, people have been making this prediction since the early 1980s with the introduction of the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100. I bought one around 1984. Since it was introduced a year earlier in 1983, it is a quarter century old this year! The Model 100 was a great ultraportable and had the best keyboard I’ve ever used on this class of device.
The OLPC and the Asus Eee PC (no, I still haven’t bought one… Maybe I should create a tip jar so I can speed up that process 
showed that the market is hungry for a ultraportable notebook. They also showed that people are willing to use Linux in the right package. The shock for many of us is that the personal Linux box finally caught on, but it took the subnotebook form factor to get it accepted.
I’m having a hard time accepting Gartner’s prediction of a pocket-sized device replacing notebooks or subnotebooks though. Why? People still need to get data into the boxes. And, after 15 years of handheld device innovation (using the Newton’s 1993 launch as an arbitrary starting point), we still haven’t got anything better than keyboards for getting a lot of information into a computer. Sure, speech recognition is amusing, handwriting recognition sort of works, and thumb keyboards caused an email revolution. But, a decent sized QWERTY keyboard is the tool of choice for most of us. And, with the average age of the population pushing up as we baby boomers reach middle and retirement age, the screen size can’t shrink much more to sell into that huge market group.
The really interesting twist depends, I think, on the outcome of Microsoft’s attempt to purchase Yahoo. If Microsoft embraces Yahoo as a whole, they will all of a sudden become a huge Open Source player. As a long time proponent of the interoperability of proprietary software (like Microsoft’s) and Open Source software, I think this could be a huge win.
Of course, huge mergers/acquisitions are never easy and always painful. So, this will be an interesting story to watch play out.
A year ago the then unreleased OLPC XO seemed to have the cheap ultraportable market to itself. However, its altruistic goals limited it to non-retail sales. The idea of $100 (or even the current $200) price for an ultraportable seemed unthinkable for the retail market. Who would buy a cheap small notebook? Then Asus came along with the breakthrough Eee PC. It was not only small and cheap, it also used Linux as its operating system. Hadn’t anyone told Asus that the Linux desktop was a dead idea? Apparently not, and it was a good thing too. The buzz around the Eee seems to have ignited a lot of suits and bean counters to talk to their engineers to create their own low-cost ultraportable. Everex announced their Think CloudBook that will be available from Walmart.com next week for $399. At first glance, it seems like a thicker version of the Eee. But, wait, it has a 30GB hard drive and a DVI-I port at the same price as the Eee PC 4G.
But what about the so-called UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) concept introduced by Microsoft last year? These small and generally slow devices had prices that seemed inversely related to their size and power: EXPENSIVE. A few have dipped under $1000. But, most seemed to be in the $1200 to $1500 range. This was clearly a lose-lose proposition: Small slow PCs at very high prices. UMPCs must be dead, right? That’s what I thought too until I saw the price drop for the FlipStart. With a price drop down to $699, this Windows Vista capable micro-notebook that has the rare SideNote external LCD looks like a contender now. If other UMPC makers drop their prices nearer the original $500 price announced for UMPCs a year ago, they might gain more interest.
I was all set to order an Asus Eee PC 8G model when they become available. But, I am not in a rush now. I am going to wait and see what else appears in the ultra portable scene. Who knows, some firm might actually revive the old Windows CE (Windows Mobile) Handheld PC genre again (I still use some of my old Handheld PCs for some writing projects).
In a strange ironic way, it looks like 2008 will be the year of the UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer) for everyone except Microsoft (who coined the term). One model of the Asustek Eee PC has been shipping for a couple of weeks now for a reasonable price ($399) and is getting pretty good reviews. The Amazon Kindle ebook reader with built-in Sprint PCS EVDO service became available this week. The, hmm, 4th generation Nokia N810 just started shipping. And, this model finally has a physical QWERTY mini-keyboard. The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) is expected to ship before the end of the year. And, if you hurry, you can get opt to donate one and get one your self through their Give One Get One (G1G1) program that runs through Nov. 26. And, every one of these products is available for under $500. In fact, at $450, the Nokia N810 is the only one more than $400.
The least expensive Microsoft based UMPC I could find (although the Asustek Eee PC can run Windows XP, it is not anymore a true Microsoft UMPC any more than any of the other devices I’ve mentioned ab0ve) is $890. And, well, the world isn’t exactly breaking down doors in a rush to buy these things are they?
All of the sub-$500 non-Microsoft UMPCs have relatively limited flash RAM storage (a few gigs at most). However, there is that persistent rumor that Apple is going to announce some kind of sub-notebook at the January 2008 MacWorld in San Francisco. If true, I’m sure this will throw the UMPC world (both Microsoft and non-Microsoft) in a spin the same way the iPhone did for the phone world this past summer.
So, the question is: Can Microsoft and its hardware partners come up with an UMPC that hits the $500 price mark that was originally stated as the target price back in March 2006: Pricing will be determined by our OEM partners. We anticipate pricing in the US$599-$999 price-range. Part of our objective in creating the original reference design for the UMPC category was to engineer a platform that’s both very compact and, through careful component choice, possible to sell for $500 MSRP.
So far, they haven’t even come close to that magic number that everyone else seems to have achieved.
The October 18 Asustek press release title for the eagerly anticipated (at least by me) ultra compact Eee PC reads…
An Eee PC Sold Every 2 Seconds
However, the text of the release says…
…with 200 pieces snapped up in 20 mins on Taiwan’s shopping channel, ETTV Shopping – averaging an Eee PC sold every 2 seconds!
Um, hmm, so 200 / 20 = 10 per minute = an Eee PC sold every 6 seconds. Still impressive but off by 3x. Not very good math. Hope it wasn’t calculated on an Eee PC
Addendum: Here’s a link to CNET UK’s Asus EeePC 701 Full Review.