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Fuzzy Logic Dell’s Inspiron Mini 12 “netbook” arrives at last
Fuzzy Logic Dell’s Inspiron Mini 12 “netbook” arrives at last | Dell’s Inspiron Mini 12 “netbook” arrives at last |
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| by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Monday, 01 December 2008 | |
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Page 3 of 3 Yep, he loves his netbook, and won’t shut up about it, now using it far more than the iPod Touch itself. With Skype installed it’s a portable voice and videophone terminal too, especially when connected to his home Wi-Fi. Featured Whitepaper
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But until Intel and AMD can truly offer “thin and light” machines of around the Mini 12 size, at the Mini 12’s price, with the power of say a Core 2 Duo, and without high heat generation – the netbook market, especially these “larger” netbooks – will continue to be popular, whether Intel wants them to be popular or not. The price barrier of a small and/or thin and light notebook, as a netbook, with “enough power” to get all your everyday computing tasks done, has definitely been broken. In the past, similarly slim notebooks, or computers as small as today’s netbooks, cost $3000-$4000. There are still examples of similarly sized machines costing thousands – the otherwise fantastic and much more fully powered Lenovo U110 is a great example of this, but at the $3000+ price, I do wonder how many have been sold. Netbooks are fantastic PC companions, and for many people, are more than enough “computer” in their own right. This is especially so after netbooks with Windows 7 pre-beta installed were demo’d at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference, with one of the executives using one plugged into a large LCD monitor, and wireless full-size keyboard and mouse as their “primary” machines. Computing is evolving, while the Australian dollar is seeing prices go up, the cost of computing power continues getting cheaper, further accessible to more people, and a lot more convenient to carry around, without needing to go as small or as, in many ways, as "inconvenient" as Pocket PCs or smartphones for "real" computing work. Netbooks and new netbook derivates such as the Dell Mini 12 are a great example of this, and with Intel and AMD making new moves in the “thin and light” space, the trend will accelerate. Future versions of Ubuntu and Windows 7 will accelerate it even further, as will the trend to see all computers come with touch screens as standard, with Asus promising touch-screen netbooks in 2009. It’s an exciting time for the industry, with netbooks a deserved hit in the marketplace. How truly successful the Dell Mini 12 will be is yet to be seen, but as a highly portable and light computing companion, like all other netbooks on the market, it could easily carve out quite a niche of its own. Ubuntu is certainly tempting, but for Windows users, with the Windows 7 actual beta due either later this month or in January, something many netbook owners could well be tempted to try, once the “free” beta is ready to download, while for many XP will be more than good enough for the time being. |
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