HP to kill its Windows 7 Slate

According to the online sources, HP is not ‘satisfied’ with the Windows 7 on a tablet and has knifed the project. Reason – Atom processors are too power hungry to be used on a slate. This means that HP will be using ARM-based processors that are much more power-frugal and efficient than the Intel Atom processors.

Not using Intel processor also rules out the possibility to run Windows 7 OS. This implies HP is cooking-up a WebOS tablet. Otherwise, why would HP spend $1.2billion on a hopeless company, right?

Asus working on an App Store for Eee Pad

Asus’ CEO, Jerry Shen has told engadget at CeBIT 2010 that they are working on an AppStore for its upcoming slate tablet, Eee Pad. Also, on using ARM processors in netbooks, he said that x86 infrastructure is required to provide better experience to the users and ARM processors are more suited for “one piece PCs”.

This is a clear indication that Asus is not going to roll-out a clamshell smartbook anytime soon.

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Qualcomm betting a lot on Smartbooks – says future is very bright for Smartbook

Qualcomm is giving its best endeavor to increase its sales and thinks that computers in the future will be just like Mobile Phones. By computers, they mean Smartbooks which are basically netbooks running Android, Google Chrome OS or Linux.

Most of the upcoming Smartbooks will be using ARM processors, precisely Qualcomm ARM-based CPUs.

Consumers want computers that will run all day on one battery charge, don’t need to be switched off and are always receiving data, said Jacobs, whose company is the world’s biggest maker of mobile-phone chips.

According to Qualcomm, people do not want to carry a bulky laptop and its charger all day with them. They want a device that can run all day and remain connected too. More than 12 companies have decided to use the Snapdragon’s chip, which runs at 1GHz clock speed. The future is surely very exciting and we are waiting for the Snapdragon-based netbooks AKA Smartbooks to hit the market

Sony Ericsson to enter into Smartbook market

Interestingly, another company is entering in the smartbook market and it is THE Sony Ericsson. Sony Ericsson, after having a not-so-great journey with their Windows Mobile smartphones (Sony Ericsson Xperia X1) have now started to concentrate towards smartbooks. According to the information given by a reliable Taiwanese source, the company is now working on a smartbook that will be released at the end of this year. No details about the specs have been made clear, what kind of specs it will have, but we suspect it to be a non-x86 device and will use ARM processors to run some mobile OS, possibly Android.

It will receive some quite healthy competitions as netbooks from other manufactures will be coming in galore too around that time period.

AMD finally to join Netbook Processor market. Well, kind of

AMD is working on a processor that is meant for low-cost laptops that will directly rival the Intel Atom platform. Rumor has it that it will consume lower-power and cost less than the Atom processors. However, AMD is still adamant that devices that will be using their upcoming processor will be notebooks and not netbooks.

AMD believes that netbooks with increased capabilities should no longer be called netbooks, but notebooks. He also added that ARM-processors will have a difficult time in the notebook market as they lack ‘software support’. Microsoft Windows OS cannot run on the ARM-based platform and require X86-platform. Linux although can run on ARM-based platform, but it is not as widely accepted as Windows.

So, is the ARM too late for the netbook party?

Aigo MID Phone – How about running XP on your phone?

Although we have seen plethora of netbooks and MIDs running Windows XP, but only a handful of companies have come up with the concept of XP-Phone. The Aigo seems to have one in development. It has left and right mouse buttons on the either sides of the device and sports a slide-out keyboard just like many HTC phones. It is also rumored to have an Intel Atom processor. It will have the ability to send and receive calls as-well-as sending and receiving messages.

Commentary: To run Windows XP, you must use an X86 platform, which rules out the possibility of using ARM processors. However, if folks at Aigo use a Linux instead, it may be possible to use the ARM processor and thus it may be able to give the user at least a day of battery life, which is important for a device to be used as a phone. Otherwise, no one would be interested in carrying a huge brick which can give them just few hours of battery life.

Canonical to Microsoft “Let’s do it on real facts!” – Folks at Ubuntu not happy

Last week, B. Lebanc at Microsoft made a post about “Windows on Netbook PCs: A Year in Review” (link), where he mentioned how the netbook scene has changed from the past couple of years. He mentions,

Not only are people overwhelmingly buying Windows, but those that try Linux are often returning it. Both MSI – a leading netbook PC OEM – and Canonical – the vendor supporting the commercial distribution of Ubuntu Linux – stated publicly they saw Linux return rates 4 times higher than Windows. Why such a disparity? Because users simply expect the Windows experience.

Ouch! Linux fans are not going to like this. Folks at Canonical disagree with the Microsoft and say that the return rate is actually similar to that of Windows based netbooks. According to them, it is the quality and out-of-box experience matters the most and is responsible for the returns.

Whatever Microsoft says, they have to admit one thing that the future is very bright for Linux. Ubuntu can run on ARM processors which consume nearly 1/10th (in some cases) of what the Atom consumes.
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