John Morris and Sean Portnoy deliver straight talk about notebook and desktop computers.
John Morris is a former executive editor at CNET Networks and senior editor at PC Magazine.
Sean Portnoy is a former executive editor at Computer Shopper magazine and editor at CNET Networks.
Almost since the start of the PC industry's "race to the bottom" with netbooks, computer makers have been attempting to reverse course, or at least slow the pace.HP tried painting peonies on the Mini 1000 and charging $700 for it (you can now find the Vivienne Tam Edition for less than $500).
There are two ways to address the limitations of netbooks: 1.) offer less-costly notebooks, or 2.
Laptops have long since overtaken their desk-bound brethren in terms of revenues, and more recently unit sales. In the first quarter, desktop unit sales dropped 23 percent, while notebook sales actually increased 10 percent compared with the same period last year, according to iSuppli.
Market researcher NPD says that consumers are confused about the difference between a netbook and a notebook. It's no wonder.
Everyone knows that PCs get faster and cheaper every year. For a while the shift to laptops seemed to slow things down a bit, but those days are over.
The tech industry is always looking for the next big thing: Bing is gaining on Google, the Palm Pre will dethrone the iPhone, and so on. One of the latest "next big things" is the duo of ARM and Android which, if you buy the hype, will wrest the PC industry from Wintel's grip.
Despite all of the hype about ARM-based smartbook and Android netbooks, you had to look pretty hard to find them at Computex 2009 in Taiwan this week. Ultra-thin laptops based on Intel's new ULV processors, however, were all over the show floor.
AMD has many challenges, but lately its ATI graphics business has been on a roll. Now the company is trying to capitalize on the momentum.
Intel announced its latest ultra low-voltage (ULV) processors at the start of the Computex trade show in Taiwan this week. The announcement was no surprise: Intel and computer makers have been talking about the chips (previously known as CULV for "consumer") for months, and in April MSI even announced a laptop, the X-Slim series X340, supposedly based on one of the new ULV chips.
Intel thinks business may be starting to pick up, but computer makers aren't as optimistic. Sales are slow in all categories and even Intel now concedes that one bright spot, netbooks, is cutting into sales of higher-priced laptops to some degree.