Intel Atom Shortage, VIA Sales, Nano Shipments

Couple of quick articles on Intel and VIA CPUs for the netbook market.

First off, DigiTimes mentions the impact the Intel Atom shortage is having on the netbook industry. They mention that because of the shortage, that LCD panel makers who handle the manufacturer of the 7″ to 10″ LCD panels for these devices are concerned about shipments of these devices (i.e. people waiting for specifically for an Intel Atom device). It’s not helped by the fact that there is a battery shortage (which might ease up this month - note the word “might“). The Intel Atom shortage on the other hand could last through the fall (into September).

DigiTimes mentions that for 8.9-inch displays, AU Optronics (AUO) and Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) are the primary suppliers. When it comes to the 10.2-inch displays, Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) and HannStar Display ship the majority of those. Kind of interesting little bit of information. Another company, Innolux Display, is ready to start producing panels for the low-cost / sub-notebook market.

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MSI Wind U100 Review, Comparison to Acer Aspire One, Eee PC 901

Mobile Computer has put together some information, photos, and a video comparison of the Acer Aspire One, MSI Wind U100, and Asus Eee PC 901, three netbooks that, despite the display-size differences, are all basically run off of the same platform, powered by Intel’s Atom CPU.

Even though the Wind U100, with a 10.2-inch widescreen display, has a larger display than the 8.9-inch displays of the Aspire One and Eee PC 901, it’s actually not that much bigger, as the photos and video illustrate.

They’ve also reviewed the MSI Wind U100, and were impressed with its design, saying:

Like Acer, MSI has gone to great lengths to ensure that the Wind looks nothing like a cheap laptop and it feels no less well made (nor any less good looking) than a laptop that costs three times as much. The all-plastic case is solid and there are no creaks or pops even when it’s flexed with both hands. There’s something about a smoothly shaped lid that we like – it worked well on the Aspire One and it’s just as good-looking here.

They gave it a rating of six out of six (the main problem being the battery, given the price) and their Editor’s Choice Award.

Read:
- Mobile Computer - Hands on with MSI Wind, Aspire One, Eee PC 901
- Mobile Computer - MSI Wind Review

HP 2133 Mini-Note in the Classroom

Might the HP 2133 Mini-Note gain additional popularity with students (a target audience that HP mentioned was important to the 2133’s success).

HP made an announcement yesterday at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) that the Fresno, California, United School District is working on deploying over 7,000 8.9-inch HP 2133 Mini-Note PCs to students in kindergarten all the way through the 12th grade.

The chief technology officer of the Fresno United School District said:

“The HP Mini-Note is a powerful laptop that is small enough to fit on students’ desks along with their textbooks and papers, allowing them access to the Internet and educational content from around the world without leaving their seats…”

While it’s great to see netbooks reaching a younger audience, kindergarten and up through the third or fourth grade, it seems like it would be more of a distraction than a tool. That’s just my opinion though. We’ll have to wait and see how it works out.

Read:
- HP Press Release
- HP’s K-12 Education Page
- Thanks to Susan G. for the link

MSI Wind U100 Unboxing, UK Availability

Looks like the MSI Wind U100 is starting to show up in the UK, as of yesterday.

Morgan Computers is showing it in stock (via Mobile Computer) for £329.99 excluding VAT (around $655). This is the 10″ version, with an 80GB hard drive and Microsoft Windows XP Home (hence the higher price).

HEXUS.channel spoke with MSI UK’s product marketing manager, Richard Stewart, who confirmed that yesterday (July 1st) was in fact the launch of the MSI Wind in the UK. In addition to Morgan Comptuers, play.com and Ebuyer would also be stocking it at some point.

Also, an unboxing video has been posted on YouTube, from somebody who received their MSI Wind (apparently in Italy).

Read:
- HEXUS.channel

Flash-Based SSDs Don’t Help Battery Life?

Tom’s Hardware has posted an article that’s generating a lot of buzz. They are saying that flash-based Solid State Drives (SSD) don’t help the battery life of your laptop. Instead, they are saying that it in fact decreases it.

Given that SSDs don’t have the mechanical (i.e. moving) parts of a conventional hard drive, as well as generate the heat that a conventional hard drive does (which causes the laptop to have to work on cooling itself, depending on how it’s designed), this is a pretty interesting view of SSDs.

Read: Tom’s Hardware

Crave’s Most Notable Notebooks from 1H 2008

Matthew Elliott hast posted an article about what he considers to be the most noteworthy notebooks to have passed through CNET in the past six months. This isn’t necessarily the highest-ranks of the review notebooks either, but ones that instead introduced something new or that did something that helped differentiate them from others.

Ultraportable laptops listed:
- Apple MacBook Air
- Lenovo IdeaPad U110
- Lenovo ThinkPad X300
- Asus Eee PC 900
- HP Compaq 2133 Mini-Note PC
- Asus Eee PC 901

Out of the 10 notebooks listed (including honorable mentions), ultraportables captured six of those positions (with three being “netbooks”).

Read: Crave / CNET

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