When you think of computers, you probably think of big name companies like Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Acer. In the netbook market, Asus, and MSI also come to mind. But there are plenty of other companies making computers and electronics components. You just rarely hear the names of these companies located in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China because they often produce machines that are sold udner other brand names in the US and Europe.
According to DigiTimes, another one of these OEM electronics makers is planning on entering the netbook market soon. BYD Electronic currently makes OEM mobile phone handsets. The company already has the tools to manufacture molds an batteries but may seek help in developing a facility capable of producing full fledged netbook computers.
The computers will likely only be available in China initially. But some Chinese companies like Haier have been known to bring their netbook models to other countries. And Haier outsources the production of those netbooks to companies like BYD Electronic.
BDY is a rapidly expanding company that started in cellphone batteries (it supplies about 30% of the world market). In 2003, it moved into electric cars and is now the number one Chinese producer and aims to become the worlds largest supplier of clean cars in the near future. It also innovative not simply rehashing others’ technology. Its electric cars use iron not lithium based batteries that are cheaper and offer a number of advantages over competitors. A measure of its potential is that Warren Buffett recently bought almost 10% of the company.
The entry of another dynamic company into the PC-laptop-netbook market can only be good news. Hopefully it will drive innovation and push down prices. However, that said, it seems a dangerous moment to further diversify!
Very interesting. Netbooks are the way to go! However, this is not the only MAJOR NEWS in the portable computing market place. Pixel Qi blog has this in their latest Feb 2nd entry: https://pixelqi.com/blog1/2009/02/02/product-freeze/
Feb 2nd 2009 Pixel Qi website quotes:
“We have been feverishly working on designing our first screen product We will be sampling our 10″ screens this spring and plan to be in high volume mass production this summer”.
“Also, while we have a high resolution paper-white black and white, we also provide, in the same screen fully saturated color fidelity – the same as a standard laptop screen – same color, contrast resolution, field of view etc.”
” In addition, by integrating the screen with the electronics driving the screen a 5-fold increase in battery life between charges can be achieved”.
I can’t wait… it’s too bad we don’t see these NOW? If they were available, with the promised battery time savings, such products that would use these 5 fold battery savings screen technology… would OWN the really really mobile market place.
AND they will first release a 10 inch screen SO you know what that will end up in… Yep, it will be in a netbook! Now, which manufacturer, and model will it end up in?
Of note, the ARM based units already have better power savings than the Intel units and if an ARM based unit, with Pixel Qi screen (hopefully with touch screen), and with an oS like Ubuntu based CrunchBang or another quick Openbox based LXDE (has GUI) like U-lite, or another fast distro… AND if these have 20 hours of use on a 3 cell battery… well, that will be amazing! I wonder what Intel is thinking about this development (and if they will be telling their OEMs to look seriously at using these screens FIRST).
I can’t wait for summer.
PS – if the reality is that this Mission Statement / Vision Statement… found on the Pixel Qi site comes true, then next year, at this time, we will be looking at a whole different mobile computing reality. CES will then be really really interesting to attend… as whoever is not playing this game, will be wishing that they were. Those that make the move will have folks 10 people deep all clustering around booths showing 20 hour PLUS netbooks running on what CPU and what OS? Well, Pixel Qi says that the OS and the CPU is meaningless, so what surprises are in store from that concept? Hmmm?
https://www.pixelqi.com/mission
“Pixel Qi has a belief on the future of the computing – it’s not about the CPU or the OS – It is about the screen”.
“Instead of focusing on higher speed (more MHz) and larger memory (more GBytes), we work toward new device designs by focusing on displays that we can read, as easily as paper – indoors and out – with battery life measured in days not hours”.