Intel Expects 100 Million+ Netbooks, Nettops to Ship 2008 - 2011
June 26, 2008
Intel is very optimistic about the future of netbooks and nettops (nettops = devices smaller or more restricted than netbooks / sub-notebooks, usually without keyboards).
Optimistic enough for them to forecast that between 2008 and 2011, there will be over 45 million netbooks / sub-notebooks shipped (no prediction on how many of those will be powered by Intel’s Atom CPU/platform or any Atom successors made by Intel). They also predict 60 million of the nettops to ship.
Digitimes mentions that some of the manufacturers don’t see the nettops / MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) being nearly that successful and that netbooks will outsell them.
I think I would agree that netbooks will rule the roost and outsell MIDs/nettops - when you get into MID/nettop territory, where it’s usually a touchscreen-only interface, as well as the smaller size of them, you are getting close to iPhones and other smartphones. Netbooks offer quite a bit to most folks, given the physical keyboard and slightly larger size.
This also ties into comments made by Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini late last month about the rise of these devices.
Read: Digitimes
Intel Centrino 2 Shipping Soon
June 23, 2008
According to CNET, Intel is still scheduled to roll out the “Montevina” Centrino 2 mobile platform in about three weeks (July 14, 2008), although some parts are going to be delayed and/or released shortly thereafter.
The integrated graphics chipset (”GM”) which would be used by many of the 11.1 - 13.3-inch ultraportables will not be available until early August, with WiMax components being released later on.
The regular 45nm CPUs should be available then (and some are available now), with updated features included a 1066MHz Front Side Bus (FSB).
As far as the Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) CPUs, all we know is that they will be released “later this year”.
It’ll be interesting to see if this matches the release of the CNET
Intel CEO on Netbooks, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs)
May 29, 2008
Peter Svensson with the Associated Press, published an article today where Paul Otellini, Intel’s CEO, discussed the upcoming Intel Atom CPU, as well as how Intel Corp. is reacting to the rising popularity of sub-notebooks / netbooks.
In the past, Intel was clearly about producing faster and faster CPUs. Recently they began to push power efficiency (which has helped give us incredibly powerful mainstream laptops), and now they are looking at making CPUs small, cheap and with an emphasis more on power efficiency rather than performance.
Otellini discussed the new trend and mentioned that he’s not too worried about cannibalization of higher-priced laptops (because he wants Intel to be the company who picks up the sale regardless of the level):
“I’ve not seen energy like this from our customers in a long, long time….. Everyone views this as being sort of hyperexpansive to the existing market.”
“If a higher-priced notebook isn’t substantially better and doesn’t offer more utility, shame on us… If there’s cannibalization, I’d rather be the cannibal than someone else.”
Read: AP/Austin-American Statesman
VIA versus Intel in Netbooks / Sub-Notebooks
May 27, 2008
There’s a very interesting competition going on when it comes to Netbooks / Sub-Notebooks and their CPUs. It doesn’t involve AMD - it’s basically Intel versus VIA Technologies,
Right now, the main face-off, as far as the public is concerned, is between Intel-powered devices such as the Asus Eee PC which is powered by older technology from Intel (although that is set to change in a few weeks when Intel’s newest mobile platform rolls out in the MSI Wind U100) and the VIA powered HP 2133 Mini-Note. There have been rumors that HP could later switch the Mini-Notes over to Intel Atoms, but VIA is fighting back.
As Tom Abate in the San Francisco Chronicle writes, it’s a very important fight for VIA in the overall processor market:
Serving this new low-cost, low-power niche has earned Via a toehold in the microprocessor market, making it a distant third behind Advanced Micro Devices, which is itself dwarfed by Intel.
“Via could get stomped by Intel or it could get carried along and benefit as Intel legitimizes the market,” said Tom Halfhill, an analyst with Microprocessor Report Online, a trade publication that tracks the industry
Read: San Francisco Chronicle
Via: GottaBeMobile
Intel, Solid State Drives, and Centrino 2
May 23, 2008
According to DigiTime’s sources, Intel is going to be launching their own flash memory-based Solid State Drives (SSDs) later this year - by the end of September, and that they see SSDs becoming the default storage format for laptops.
They are also claiming that the SSDs will be bundled with Intel’s Centrino 2 (Montevina) platform.
This bundled platform and SSD line will be called the “Intel High Performance SSD” and will not be targeting the lower-end netbook / sub-notebook category.
The Serial ATA (SATA) drives will be delivered in both 2.5-inch and 1.8-inch form factors. They believe Intel can double that to 160GB by the end of the year, and hit 250GB next year.
Read: DigiTimes
Ultraportables and Intel
May 6, 2008
CNET is running an article that looks beneath the surface of the Lenovo IdeaPad U110, the Apple MacBook Air, and the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 to show just how similar they are, and why that is.
All three of these ultraportable laptops are actually very close once you look at the core electronics (CPU and graphics) and storage options, as CNET mentions:
…some of the sveltest, lightest, and most impressive of notebooks: the Air, X300, and just-released U110.
Scratch the surface (or lift up the keyboard in this case), however, and you’ll find that their unique exteriors house similar Intel core electronics.
Does this have anything to do with nefarious strong-arm tactics on Intel’s part? Or just that AMD and Nvidia don’t have competitive offerings in this space? The evidence points pretty convincingly to the latter.
Read: CNET / nanotech : the circuits blog (”Bona fide Intel monopoly: Ultraportables”)
