Looking for a sign that netbooks in the hunt? And even morphing into notebooks? Here are a few.
Netbooks was great to see the gadget on the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, which ended on Friday.
And all Netbooks on Microsoft Windows-state were 7, Microsoft next-generation operating system due next year.
A Microsoft person on the floor said that the lite version of Windows 7 will take place on 1 GB of memory and 16 GB (solid-state disk) for storage. Higher-end Netbooks, a 160 gigabyte hard disk, according to Microsoft “guidelines”.
This person also said something surprising. Dual-Core processors will be used in the Atom Netbooks. I tried to disabuse that would netbooks Dual-Core processor Atom. No, I said it was Nettops (Atom-based desktops), which would have Dual-Core. But he assured me that the vendors are planning to do for Dual-Core Netbooks.
So I contacted Intel. There are no immediate plans for the Dual-Core Atom chips designed specifically for Netbooks according to Intel. But what is stopping netbook suppliers using Dual-Core Atom 330 (designed for nettops) in the Netbook? Answer: nothing.
O 8 watts, the chip has a higher capacity than single-core processors Atom envelopes, only 8 watts is still low in comparison with the regular Core 2 Duo processor. Other specifications for the Atom 330 with a core clock speed of 1.6Ghz, 1MB Level-2 cache and support for DDR2 667 MHz memory.
Beginning to sound more like low-end notebook? I think so.
Netbook market share seems to be growing, too. Slightly more than 5 million Atom processors delivered in the third quarter of 2008, according to Shane Rau of IDC, a market researcher. “If add to the overall market, or it will eat into the overall market? Another question would be to eat Atom processor in the other brands, such as the Celeron (Intel) and Sempron (AMD)?”
Rau says that the overall market could grow, while Netbooks eat in the notebook market share. “The TAM (total available market) may increase, although the Atom eat another brand. But we still do not know how to shake,” he said.
And there is evidence Netbooks passed into consumer awareness. Best Buy now has a separate category for Netbooks on its website. Directly under the laptop, you’ll see ‘Netbooks. “Interestingly, the top ranked under urban category Netbooks desktops and in most other” computer “category.
