Over at jkOnTheRun, James Kendrick has written a good commentary on what draws many of us to the smaller notebooks.
He discusses the Fujitsu LifeBook P1620 and the Asus Eee PC, and the attention that the Eee PC has been getting lately (something that surprised those used to “mainstream” mobile computing and who weren’t seeking out smaller and smaller devices like your or I or JK).
Over the period of the next few hours I was approached by no fewer than 20 people who had seen me using the Fuji who wanted to see the “tiny notebook”. You have to realize that just about everyone at this conference was carrying a notebook of some sort as these are highly connected people. Every single person who asked to see the Fuji admitted they were highly interested because they could see that the size was perfect for carrying everywhere and using it with little or no trouble. They would try the keyboard and once they saw they could type fine on it with a little practice each one of them said they’d buy one in a heartbeat if they could get something similar for a good price.
He goes on to mention that, based on his observations, the HP Compaq 2133 could be huge.
I agree with pretty much everything he said, although I think the Asus Eee PC 900 (the 9-inch version of the Eee PC) could shake things up even further. However, if the images of the HP 2133 are correct, it could very well bring it into the corporate world. I love the Eee PC, I love what it’s doing for mobile computing, but in its present form I don’t see it going into the same markets that HP could take such a device into. That’s nothing against Asus – they knew exactly who they were designing for, and I’m sure their accountants are quite pleased with the success of the Eee PC.
The draw of small notebooks (jkontherun.blogs.com)