Computex promises to deliver on the mobile front
While Intel appears to be stepping away from the netbook market for the moment, ARM-based competitors are stepping in.
During this year's Computex Taipei 2009 show, Intel will be focusing on its CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) notebooks. Intel is expected to launch a new CULV CPU (SU2700) that can pair up with GS40 chipsets. The company is also expected to launch a new cooling technology (Laminar Wall Jet) designed specifically for CULV-based notebooks.
While netbooks have been hot-selling items, Intel believes that consumers may be willing to pay a little bit more for a much sleeker more powerful device. The company has indicated that CULV products will sell at very attractive price points with some analysts pegging the range at about US$600-750.
Although this may be a good strategy for the company in the long-term, there have been rumblings in the market that system makers cannot meet their target costs due to component shortages.
Taiwan-based notebook vendors including Acer, Asustek Computer and Micro-Star International (MSI), have all slowed down their volume shipment schedules for Intel CULV-based ultra-thin notebooks due to short supplies of some key components, including flat panels, DRAM modules, hard disks and optical drives, according to previous reports.
Component makers have been unable to ramp up production, which has been running at reduced capacity over the past few months due to low orders, in time to meet the recent upsurge in demand. As a result, shortages have caused the total cost of ultra-thin notebooks to creep up to around 10% more than expected.
Shortages of LED backlight panels are also increasing component costs and impacting gross margins for Acer's ultra-thin product line, according to the company.
Volume shipments of CULV models are now expected to pick up in July and will mainly ship on demand, sources recently noted
Acer expects traditional notebooks will still account for around 50-60% of total notebook shipments in the future, while ultra-thin notebooks will stand at 20-30%, and netbooks at 20%.
On the netbook front, Intel has had seen strong success with its Atom processor in a surprisingly short period of time. According to Intel, in the year since it launched the Atom processor, netbooks have become firmly established as a new category of Internet devices. With nearly 300 netbooks (including nettop designs) involving more than 30 OEM/ODMS, it is hard to argue with the chip giant.
Looking at the data, netbooks accounted for only about 5% of Taiwan's notebook shipments in the second quarter of 2008, according to Digitimes Research. The proportion jumped to about 20% by the end of last year and since then has held steady. In fact, while the global economic downturn was especially hard on the IT industry in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of this year, netbook shipments helped Taiwan maintain on-year shipment growth in every quarter up till now. Looking to the future, Intel expects the netbook market to be a "US$10 billion opportunity by 2011".
However, this year at Computex a number of ARM-based silicon providers are looking to stake a claim in netbook territory as well. Qualcomm has already leaked plans of its smartbook platform and Nvidia will be highlighting its Tegra platform. Freescale powered ARM-based netbooks are also expected to make an appearance at Computex.
While Intel will talk about performance and software compatibility, the ARM camp will counter with all-day battery life, multimedia capabilities and connectivity.
However, the competition will also be about existing sales channels. Qualcomm is approaching the market from the handset business. The company sees current netbooks as commodity products that can only compete on price. Qualcomm is looking to appeal to handset makers and telecom service providers with its smartbook platform using the argument they can use smartbooks to differentiate their products through software and services, such as through the unique way RIM handles email.
Although the ARM camp may not yet be able to compete with Intel in the retail market for such devices, the semi players do hold sway with wireless service providers, who have also been a sales target for a number of Taiwan's netbook makers.
Nvidia is taking a slightly different approach. The graphics specialist will argue that the time of the GPU has arrived and that system providers can do a lot more with a combination of a good CPU and a very good GPU. For ARM-based processing, Nvidia will offer Tegra while its Ion chipset will support Intel CPU-based netbooks. The key for Nvidia is graphics. From Nvidia's standpoint, the company believes it can be a key facilitator for delivering a good multimedia experience on a budget US$299 device.
Of course, Intel is not standing still on the netbook front. Intel will highlight its next-generation Pine Trail MID platform during Computex, which will reduce the platform from three chips to two, decreasing power consumption and space and providing Intel with more opportunities in the market.
AMD plans to showcase its Istanbul server platform and hopefully the company will also give a glimpse into its new notebook platform (Tigris). The new platform consists a 45nm dual-core Caspian CPU, RS880M chipset, and a 55nm or 40nm M9X GPU.
AMD will push also push is Yukon and Congo platforms for 13-inch and below notebooks, while Tigris will target notebooks that are 14-inch and above in size.
Windows 7 is also expected to attract a lot of attention at the show, and Microsoft will be staging its biggest Computex ever to demonstrate how its operating system "makes life simpler."
Over 3,400 people have already registered to attend a keynote, "Windows Makes Life Simpler," to be delivered during Computex by Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Division, and Kevin Dallas, general manager of the Windows Embedded Business, according to Microsoft Taiwan.
Microsoft and 16 PC vendors, including Acer, Asustek Computer, BenQ, Dell, Hewlett Packard (HP), Lenovo and Micro-Star International (MSI) are expected to exhibit netbooks, notebooks, and all-in-one PCs running on Windows 7.
Microsoft can be located at Booth L108 at the Nangang Exhibition Hall. Besides Windows 7, there will be three other themes: Windows Mobile, Windows Embedded, and Windows Server.
During this year's Computex Taipei 2009 show, Intel will be focusing on its CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) notebooks. Intel is expected to launch a new CULV CPU (SU2700) that can pair up with GS40 chipsets. The company is also expected to launch a new cooling technology (Laminar Wall Jet) designed specifically for CULV-based notebooks.
While netbooks have been hot-selling items, Intel believes that consumers may be willing to pay a little bit more for a much sleeker more powerful device. The company has indicated that CULV products will sell at very attractive price points with some analysts pegging the range at about US$600-750.
Although this may be a good strategy for the company in the long-term, there have been rumblings in the market that system makers cannot meet their target costs due to component shortages.
Taiwan-based notebook vendors including Acer, Asustek Computer and Micro-Star International (MSI), have all slowed down their volume shipment schedules for Intel CULV-based ultra-thin notebooks due to short supplies of some key components, including flat panels, DRAM modules, hard disks and optical drives, according to previous reports.
Component makers have been unable to ramp up production, which has been running at reduced capacity over the past few months due to low orders, in time to meet the recent upsurge in demand. As a result, shortages have caused the total cost of ultra-thin notebooks to creep up to around 10% more than expected.
Shortages of LED backlight panels are also increasing component costs and impacting gross margins for Acer's ultra-thin product line, according to the company.
Volume shipments of CULV models are now expected to pick up in July and will mainly ship on demand, sources recently noted
Acer expects traditional notebooks will still account for around 50-60% of total notebook shipments in the future, while ultra-thin notebooks will stand at 20-30%, and netbooks at 20%.
On the netbook front, Intel has had seen strong success with its Atom processor in a surprisingly short period of time. According to Intel, in the year since it launched the Atom processor, netbooks have become firmly established as a new category of Internet devices. With nearly 300 netbooks (including nettop designs) involving more than 30 OEM/ODMS, it is hard to argue with the chip giant.
Looking at the data, netbooks accounted for only about 5% of Taiwan's notebook shipments in the second quarter of 2008, according to Digitimes Research. The proportion jumped to about 20% by the end of last year and since then has held steady. In fact, while the global economic downturn was especially hard on the IT industry in the fourth quarter of 2008 and first quarter of this year, netbook shipments helped Taiwan maintain on-year shipment growth in every quarter up till now. Looking to the future, Intel expects the netbook market to be a "US$10 billion opportunity by 2011".
However, this year at Computex a number of ARM-based silicon providers are looking to stake a claim in netbook territory as well. Qualcomm has already leaked plans of its smartbook platform and Nvidia will be highlighting its Tegra platform. Freescale powered ARM-based netbooks are also expected to make an appearance at Computex.
While Intel will talk about performance and software compatibility, the ARM camp will counter with all-day battery life, multimedia capabilities and connectivity.
However, the competition will also be about existing sales channels. Qualcomm is approaching the market from the handset business. The company sees current netbooks as commodity products that can only compete on price. Qualcomm is looking to appeal to handset makers and telecom service providers with its smartbook platform using the argument they can use smartbooks to differentiate their products through software and services, such as through the unique way RIM handles email.
Although the ARM camp may not yet be able to compete with Intel in the retail market for such devices, the semi players do hold sway with wireless service providers, who have also been a sales target for a number of Taiwan's netbook makers.
Nvidia is taking a slightly different approach. The graphics specialist will argue that the time of the GPU has arrived and that system providers can do a lot more with a combination of a good CPU and a very good GPU. For ARM-based processing, Nvidia will offer Tegra while its Ion chipset will support Intel CPU-based netbooks. The key for Nvidia is graphics. From Nvidia's standpoint, the company believes it can be a key facilitator for delivering a good multimedia experience on a budget US$299 device.
Of course, Intel is not standing still on the netbook front. Intel will highlight its next-generation Pine Trail MID platform during Computex, which will reduce the platform from three chips to two, decreasing power consumption and space and providing Intel with more opportunities in the market.
AMD plans to showcase its Istanbul server platform and hopefully the company will also give a glimpse into its new notebook platform (Tigris). The new platform consists a 45nm dual-core Caspian CPU, RS880M chipset, and a 55nm or 40nm M9X GPU.
AMD will push also push is Yukon and Congo platforms for 13-inch and below notebooks, while Tigris will target notebooks that are 14-inch and above in size.
Windows 7 is also expected to attract a lot of attention at the show, and Microsoft will be staging its biggest Computex ever to demonstrate how its operating system "makes life simpler."
Over 3,400 people have already registered to attend a keynote, "Windows Makes Life Simpler," to be delivered during Computex by Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Division, and Kevin Dallas, general manager of the Windows Embedded Business, according to Microsoft Taiwan.
Microsoft and 16 PC vendors, including Acer, Asustek Computer, BenQ, Dell, Hewlett Packard (HP), Lenovo and Micro-Star International (MSI) are expected to exhibit netbooks, notebooks, and all-in-one PCs running on Windows 7.
Microsoft can be located at Booth L108 at the Nangang Exhibition Hall. Besides Windows 7, there will be three other themes: Windows Mobile, Windows Embedded, and Windows Server.
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