Mini laptops pose a mobile challenge

Jennigay Coetzer - Business Day 19 June

Mini devices are challenging the supremacy of PCs and laptops.

They include an increasing number of mini laptop-like netbooks that are emerging in various configurations, that sell for under R4,000 and over 300 different designs are available.

Netbooks are a lot smaller and thinner than laptops, with eight to 10-inch screens, battery life of up to 5 hours, and are lighter and easier to carry around.

They are ideal for checking e-mail, surfing the web, accessing information and handling basic computing tasks while on the move.

“Ninety percent of netbooks are used as a secondary device to a PC or laptop,” says Danie Steyn, Sub-Saharan regional business manager at Intel.

He says netbooks are not ideal for multitasking, fancy PowerPoint presentations or applications that require a lot of processing power.

They typically provide one-third of the processing power of traditional Centrino laptops, are slower than the entry-level Celeron laptop models and do not come with extras like a CD ROM drive.

Some have traditional hard drives, while others have flash memory drives that operate like a built-in memory stick, but with a capacity of up to 16 gigabytes.

They can be connected to standard PC peripherals like a keyboard and mouse with a USB cable, but most of them do not have ports for connecting to an external screen.

“It is important for users to know these limitations because we do not want them buying a netbook thinking it is just a small laptop and then finding it does not meet their needs,” says Steyn.

The next generation of netbooks will be based on Intel’s Pine-Trail-M technology platform, which will incorporate an Ericsson 3G mobile broadband communication capability.

This will enable users to connect to the internet without having to purchase an additional external 3G adaptor.

Sanjay Kaul, vice-president of multimedia solutions and systems integration for Ericsson Sub-Saharan Africa says the company’s target is to have 300 million netbooks in use globally with its broadband capability by 2014, although this is a conservative estimate.

He says at least 30% of these devices will be sold through operators and bundled with connectivity packages.

“The trend is moving this way worldwide,” says Kaul.

Another  category of mobile user devices known as smartbooks is being developed by the mobile chip manufacturers that fills the gap between smartphones and laptops.

Smartbooks are are a similar shape, but are even smaller than netbooks, cost less, consume even less power, have embedded 3G, Wi-Fi and GPS capabilities, 3D graphics and high-resolution screens up to 12 inches, but have no hard drives.

Like smartphones, their always-on 3G capabilities enable them to be permanently connected the mobile network, and they offer the same all day battery life.

But they have larger screens, offer a far better internet browsing experience and support video conferencing, instant messaging, video streaming and downloads, game playing and social networking.

These devices are expected to support operating systems like Linux, Symbian, Google’s Android, and perhaps even Windows.

Cell phone chip maker Qualcomm coined the term smartbook and others, like Freescale are jumping on the bandwagon.

Qualcomm says 15 manufacturers are developing smartbook devices based on its Snapdragon chipset, also used in smartphones, and it expects 30 products to emerge by the end of this year.
Some interesting smartbook prototypes are displayed on Freescale’s website, including one that unfolds to provide a separate screen, keyboard and mouse and another from which a keyboard slides out of the side of the unit.

Then there is one with a vertical display, one with a touch screen interface, one featuring a leather-based casing, and another modular unit that allows for customisation.

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Tags: Ericsson, mini laptops, mobile, Netbooks