Stan Beer
Monday, 27 April 2009 15:08
Business IT -
Technology
Page 2 of 3
First and foremost there is still a limited range of
applications for the Android platform and what there is has been mainly
developed for smartphones. This will change as developers continue to
ramp up.
Some may argue that if we look at the Andoid
netbooks strictly as netbooks then running browser-based applications
should be the go, although that defeats the purpose of developing
native Android apps.
Given that the Android netbooks will may rely heavily on applications
running in the cloud, the next question will be whether the ARM 11
processor running at 533MHz on a minimum spec netbook such as the Alpha
680 will have enough oomph to do the things we want it to.
It's all very well to do the sorts of things we normally do on an
iPhone, However, most of us expect even a small netbook to do the
things a computer can do - having multiple windows open running
different applications, easily cutting and pasting between documents
while surfing the web and downloading a movie for instance.
Another thing that will concern consumers is that if they are going to
take a hit in performance and limit their range, then at least for
their money they should get a decent swag of battery life. ARM
processors are supposed to give up to 12 hours battery life in this
context,
Apparently this is not the case with the Alpha 680 which is reported to
give 2-4 hours of WiFi or 3G web surfing. Compare that to the Eee PC
1000HE running Windows XP which boasts up to 9 hours battery life but
on testing under real conditions in my office gave me about 6 hours.
Comparing the Alpha 680 to Eee PC 1000HE is unfair of course, as the
machines are clearly in different classes with respect to price and
performance.
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