Netbook market splits in two as PC World rejects Linux

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Netbook market splits in two as PC World rejects Linux

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 5 June, 2009

READ MORE: Linux | Netbook

As the Computek trade show in Taiwan came to a close, netbooks had emerged as a key theme. At the start of the event, the main theme was whether Windows or one or more Linuxes would dominate - by the end, Asus had pulled its Android device and UK retailer PC World had stopped selling Linux netbooks, while Qualcomm had outlined its 'smartbook' sub-category. All this showed Windows (and Intel Atom) still in firm control in the current netbook form factor, with its PC heritage and channels - leaving the ARM/Linux brigade to seek to define a new market, more aligned to their smartphone roots.

This shows the netbook category splitting into two broad markets - the current familiar format, an ultrathin mobile PC priced around $500 or less, with or without embedded 3G and hard drive; and an even smaller design, with lower power and price, always with embedded wireless, but without a hard drive and some other features.

This is what Qualcomm has branded a smartbook, and for now at least, is likely to be the main territory for Linux and for ARM-based processors like Qualcomm's own Snapdragon. The main risk is whether there are sufficient users who will invest in yet another format, and who agree with Qualcomm that a smartphone-style interface would be superior to that of Windows PCs.

"Windows was actually the winner of the netbook market," commented Mikako Kitagawa, an analyst at Gartner. He thinks it will be challenging for Android to penetrate the high end "unless there is some really appealing function". This was borne out by a decision by PC World, the UK's largest electronics retail chain, to take Linux netbooks off its shelves this week. Jeremy Fennell, the chain's category director, said in a statement that all netbooks would now run Windows and would have screens of at least 10 inches. "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," he added.

The form factor, and Linux variants like Ubuntu (the main one currently used on netbooks) will evolve, but for now the Linux community needs a new target. This has led Qualcomm and others to define the sub-category they call 'smartbooks'. As well as offering a more mobile experience to a class of users who are less wedded to the PC/Windows experience, it may also be the preserve of different vendors, some coming from the phone market, more used to the low price/margin levels of this class of device - and to negotiating the cellco deals that will be essential to bring them to market.

The ARM ecosystem may be relying on its ability to keep its power consumption lower than Intel's for at least another year, but that will not stop the Atom giant pursuing any new category that starts to attract a significant user base, and which could take it further into mobility too. Lower power Atoms, due next year, will lead the charge, as will its own Linux platform, Moblin. Microsoft, for its part, has ceded the new low end category, saying it will not release Windows 7 for ARM devices or those with miniature screens, though it may make a play with Windows Mobile on ARM smartbooks.

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