One of the surprising trends in the computing space has been the surge of low cost netbook computers. The trend toward these small laptops began with Microsoft's release of the Ultra Mobile PC or UMPC. These were priced around $800 to $1200. Small in size, but not in price.
Then several companies started releasing small notebook computers running Linux with a full set of applications loaded on the device. New price points of sub-$400 became the norm. First the Asus EeePC started this craze, but since then HP, Dell and many other vendors have entered the market. Now these devices are going for about $250, and some will run Windows XP. People started calling these packages "netbooks" (sure beats UMPC), and everyone seemed interested. The other big change driven by these machines is the move to Solid State hard Drives (SSD). Just like your USB memory sticks these are Flash drives. No moving parts, all electronic storage - more reliable and less likely to become brain dead after a drop to the floor - also faster and very quiet.
Now, I'll have a quick round-up of some of the recent netbooks shown at CES, but for now I wanted to let you know about an interesting deal. But you'll need to act fast - this is only good until Sunday 1/25/2009.
Checkout this deal from a company called CherryPal. Your get 2 lean, mean green machines. One is a netbook and the other is what they call a nettop (a small box like the netbook, but for a desktop). So you get the nettop now and the netbook around March when it ships - both for $399.
The netbook (laptop) is called the Bing (get it) running the standard stuff - an Intel Atom N270 processor 1.6GHz, 1GB memory and 160 GB HDD (not a SSD), 3 USB ports, SD/MMC/MS socket, Wi-Fi (b/g), microphone, dual speakers, 10.2" display - 1024 x 600 resolution and 1.3M Pixel web cam. All this at 3lbs and about 5 hour battery life.
The nettop is an interesting box also and runs off a Freescale processor with 256MB of memory and a 8GB SSD drive. You can see all the specs on both machines here. Now the real story here is that it runs off 2 Watts of power, uses 80% less components than a traditional PC and they claim it can last 10 years! But the story gets better, because they are including 50GB (I think that's the current number) of free cloud storage. The storage is subsidized by advertising on the machine when browsing.
Because of the cloud computing model - you are protected from problems like viruses and upgrade headaches.
Now these machines aren't built to run applications like Microstation - yet, but they can do many of the things that the average person does with a PC today.
I'm still trying to figureout where this is all going, but considering the current economy - 2 PC devices for $399 sounds like an interesting deal for many homes with a Wi-Fi network.
Maybe "it's the economy - stupid" that's driving all this.
So let me summarize - cheap, green cloud computing, netbooks and soiid state hard drives with an advertising-based model - all things to watch in 2009.