It looks like Sony may be planning to launch a low cost ultraportable this fall. IDG reports that system maker Quanta, )which takes contract orders for PCs which are then sold under other brand names) , was showing off a computer based on the VIA OpenBook reference design at the WiMax Expo in Taipei. Under the system properties, Sony was listed as the manufacturer, but the Quanta rep would not go into any details (and quickly closed the laptop after this was pointed out).
According to PC World, the laptop sported a 1.6GHz C7-M processor. But the OpenBook design is actually built around the upcoming VIA Nano processor, which will as much as quadruple performance while keeping energy use low. It’s not clear whether the Quanta computer was showing a C7 chip simply because the Nano wasn’t ready to include in the prototype, or if the software simply mistook a Nano for a C7 chip.
[via UMPC Portal]
I’m sad for Sony, kind of… They never saw this coming. Their (beautiful) smallest machines start at 2000 bucks. I simply can’t see them responding to the lilliputing wave (I love that the name also makes sense from a business perspective).
Apple is just as much deadlocked. It has just introduced the Air, which is triple the cost of any machine around. So they either cut prices and get early adopters going nuts, or they stay where they are and face the growing threat of linux.
I wonder why these machines have not picked Ubuntu. Makes you think, doesn’t it?