Intel and Nokia unveiled plans on Tuesday to work together to create a type of mobile computing device beyond today’s smartphones and netbooks.

The move takes Intel a step further towards a breakthrough into the highly prized mobile phone market. Nokia typically works with potential suppliers on joint research for several years before deciding to adopt a particular technology.

For Intel, a partnership with a leading mobile player is crucial to adoption of its chips although the announcement suggested the groups would focus on niche products initially in categories of devices yet to be developed.

"We believe that this will allow us to create an entire new category of devices," Kai Öistämö, Nokia executive vice-president in charge of the group's devices unit, told a media conference call. "The mobile and computing industries are coming together and we, as leaders in our respective industries, are taking the responsibility to really be the enablers to create this brave new world."

His counterpart, Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice-president of Intel’s ultra mobility group, described the partnership as "this year's most significant collaboration in our respective industries."

Source: FT

Labels: intel, MIDs, netbooks, Nokia, smartphones

Acer, the world's third-biggest PC maker, vowed to be among the top five smartphone vendors in three to five years as it made its first foray into the fast-growing segment.

The Taiwanese computer maker launched four smartphones for the Taiwan market and promised a further six by the end of the year.

Acer's move into smartphones reflects the continued convergence between the computing and communications industries, and the fact that computer makers are looking for sources of growth amid a PC market battered by the economic downturn.

Few phone makers are switching to computer manufacture, but several of Acer's rivals, such as the smaller Asus, are developing smartphones, which accounted for 12 per cent of mobile sales in the fourth quarter of last year, according to research firm Gartner.

The market is dominated by Nokia, which has a 41 per cent share, followed by BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, Apple, HTC and Samsung.

Aymar de Lencquesaing, president of Acer's smart handheld unit, said smartphones represented a "very big opportunity" for the computer maker, which expects to have a 6-7 per cent market share and to ship 20m smartphones annually by 2012.

Acer appears prepared to undercut its rivals to reach that goal, as it did in the stiffly competitive PC market. The four models Acer is selling in Taiwan range betweenT$15,000 and T$20,000 (US$455-$607) compared with T$20,000-T$25,000 for HTC's smartphones and about T$26,000 for Apple iPhones.

Acer's phones, particularly two models it plans to launch in September, aim to "bridge the gap between [standard] feature phones and smartphones", Mr de Lencquesaing said. The C1, which looks like a standard mobile phone but has a touchscreen, would sell for $40-$50.

Apple said last week it would sell an iPhone for $99.

Only 300m of the world's 4bn mobile phone users were using smartphones, Mr de Lencquesaing said. "It's not at all a question of whether they will shift; it's a question of when.  Inherently, the economics of this market is that it's faster growing than the PC market."

Arthur Hsieh, technology analyst for UBS, said smartphones would reach 20 per cent of the global market in the second half of this year. It was too early to tell whether Acer's strategy would succeed, he added.

Source: FT

Labels: Acer, netbooks, smartphones

The research group Epitiro reports that the average mobile-broadband download speed in the UK is 0.9Mbps. This is a quarter of the rate promised by most providers.

Epitiro chief executive Gavin Johns said in a statement: "This exhaustive study confirms the general consensus that mobile-broadband services are functional and, while currently slower in practice than their fixed-line competition, continually improving.

I think this statement is a little too upbeat. It's a timely reminder of the frustration many users experience, and this is certainly something Coda will be exploring in its new project around netbooks and mobile broadband.

For its report, Mobile Broadband Performance Analysis - Initial Findings 2009, Epitiro pulled together more than 1.4 million test results. The tests took place between December 2008 and May 2009, and were conducted with the more than 1,300 UK mobile-broadband users who downloaded Epitiro's broadband-monitoring software.

Source: Silicon.com

Labels: mobile broadband, netbooks

Despite the possibility/promise of netbooks being the conduit for Linux to become mainstream, it looks like consumers have come out in favour of Microsoft.

PC World, the UK's biggest computing retailer, will soon stop selling Linux netbooks in its stores. Jeremy Fennell, PC World's category director, said on Monday that all the netbooks in PC World's stores will feature Microsoft Windows. 'Despite initial hype that netbooks would move more users onto the Linux platform, Microsoft has emerged as the preferred operating system because Windows makes it easier to share content and provides customers with a simpler, more familiar computing experience on the move,' Fennell said."

Preference for Windows based netbooks is not limited to the UK. Latest data from NPD's retail tracking service is that Windows now accounts for a massive 98% of all small notebook PC sales in the US.

Labels: linux, Microsoft, netbooks, PC World, Windows

Acer has just announced that a version of its Aspire One netbook will run the Android operating system, from the third quarter this year.

Android was originally intended as a smartphone platform. But with some phones increasingly being able to do what some laptops can, coupled with growth in mobile broadband, the importance of being able to connect wherever you are and the popularity of netbooks, distinctions between the two are becoming less obvious (apart from the ability to make calls of course)

Jim Wong, Acer's president of IT products, said in a statement, ''Netbooks are designed to be compact in size and easy to connect to the internet wherever you go... The Android operating system offers incredibly fast wireless connection to the internet; for this reason, Acer has decided to develop Android netbooks for added convenience to our customers.'

According to Acer, the majority of Acer netbooks will come with Android as an alternative operating system to Microsoft's Windows.

Labels: Acer, android, netbooks, smartphones

Mini Laptops helping mobile broadband: "Despite the warnings that mobile broadband could be reaching its peak, further research has found that this conclusion may not be so and in fact, over the next five years, mobile broadband is set to increase further.

This growth is being partly attributed to the introduction of the so called “Mini Laptop” computers.

These are small laptops with limited capabilities, but because of their portability these machines are extremely popular with the consumer.

However, it has to be said that two devices, the mini laptop and the mobile broadband dongle, are both reliant on each other and, as the market develops, mobile broadband contracts are often offered with a mini laptop included at no cost to the consumer.

The market is developing in a similar way to how the mobile phone market developed."

Labels: mobile broadband, netbooks

Useful article here about what to look for in a netbook, even if you want one for business.

Labels: netbooks

So, Microsoft has just announced an 11% fall in net profits, and following this, a cut in 5,000 jobs worldwide. Microsoft blames this on "the further deterioration of global economic conditions", namely, whilst Microsoft had forecast Windows revenues to increase by more than 10%, sales were in fact flat.

This seems like bad news for Microsoft, but there are opportunities these figures conceal. Flat sales in the PC market should be contrasted with growth in netbook sales. Microsoft has gone from 0% share in the netbook market, to 80%. People increasingly want ubiquitous access to the internet, and growth in web apps, even office type software and especially around communication, coincide with how the internet is an ever increasing locus for people's every day lives. And people are familiar with Windows, and they want their experience of a new technology (a netbook) to be a seamless as possible. So, sales of netbooks will continue to grow, and in the medium term we will see smaller laptops take on characteristics of netbooks e.g. solid state hard hard drives, in so doing making the two indistinguishable. This suggests that these won't be two separate markets. Small laptops will become cheaper, lighter, and will be used increasingly as internet machines.

Labels: internet, Microsoft, netbooks, Windows