$200 Intel Android Laptops Are Coming 319
symbolset writes "Outbound Intel CEO Paul Otellini created quite a stir when mentioning that touchscreen laptops would reach a $200 price point. CNET is now reporting in an interview with Intel chief product officer Dadi Perlmutter that these touchscreen laptops will run Android on Intel Atom processors at first. 'Whether Windows 8 PCs hit that price largely depends on Microsoft, he said. "We have a good technology that enables a very cost-effective price point," Perlmutter said. The price of Windows 8 laptops "depends on how Microsoft prices Windows 8. It may be a slightly higher price point." ... Perlmutter didn't specify what the Android notebooks will look like, but it's probable they'll be convertible-type devices. He also noted that he expects the PC market to pick up in the back half of the year and heading into 2014 as new devices become available."
android over windows (Score:5, Interesting)
.
I thought that the sub-$300 laptops were declared dead last year and at the beginning of this year. Are people finally realizing that holding a tablet upright isn't all that it's cracked up to be?
:>)
And also that {unbundling a touchscreen laptop and selling its parts individually as a touchscreen tablet + case cover + attachable keyboard + carryalong recharger which ends up costing twice the cost of the comparable bundled together laptop in the firstplace} is untenable in a market-place where people are still interested in saving money.
Perhaps eliminating Secure Boot? (Score:3, Interesting)
Intel might be building a computer that gives other operating systems a test bed to innovate and create something new. A multifunction laptop/tablet that can run Android, Chrome, Linux, or Firefox OS as the user desires.
Re:bets? (Score:5, Interesting)
PC manufacturers won't bother - the $200 price point was not appealing the first time around. There was absolutely no money to be made then, just like now. Unless Intel is shovelling parts at the OEMs for free, there's no way.
Hell, before the iPad came out, you want to know what happened to the $300 netbooks? They became $400 and $500 netbooks! The $300 ones were basically clearances or older models that haven't moved because they were tiny 7" screens or other compromises that people didn't like.
Even Chromebooks are compromised to get them to that price point, mostly by going ARM.
At this point, the question of $200 will depend on what crap they can cut in order to meet the price - most likely you'll see the return of crappy screens (ye olde 800x480), tiny RAM (2GB or so if you're lucky), and miniscule hard drives (8GB SSDs). All of which would make a Windows 8 experience pretty terrible.
A $200 retail laptop would have to have $150 tops in parts (the $50 is eaten as retailer profit, manufacturer profit, shipping and warehousing, etc). A cheap spinning rust hard drive is probably $50 for 500GB, way too expensive. 8GB of SSD storage from a thumbdrive, say, is cheap - $5. Then there's RAM, CPU, battery, and all the other pieces which quickly eat up that BOM cost.
Re:bets? (Score:5, Interesting)
Office doesn't run on Android.
That means both of Microsoft's cash cows will have been bypassed. They'll HAVE to respond in some way.
I still don't want touch screen (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't want a touch screen. How about saving the touch screen and making a $150 laptop? The touch screen is just unwanted extra cost. I have a hard enough time keeping the screen clean without people intentionally smearing their grubby fingers across it. It's definitely not anything I want to pay extra for.
Netbooks are quite useful. I'd also like to see more ARM units with long battery life. The netbook form has more room for battery than a tablet does so there really aren't any excuses any more for not having 10 - 12 hours of battery. That's enough to get through a full day at a conference or long flight with transfers.
Re:bets? (Score:5, Interesting)
...crappy screens (ye olde 800x480), tiny RAM (2GB or so if you're lucky), and miniscule hard drives (8GB SSDs)...hard drive is probably $50 for 500GB...
With a polished+supported OS and an 80GB drive, at $200 it'd work for a lot of people, either as a primary system if they're poor or a secondary/work-only one if they're not. I'm speaking firsthand from my single-core 2GHz Thinkpad T43 after finally upgrading it to 2GB of RAM today; it has a 60GB hard drive, 1024x768 14" screen, runs SimplyMepis 11 Linux (currently using 4.8G + 1G swap), and does everything I'd like it to do.
My laptop's specs give a good idea of what a manufacturer could get away with in creating a polished Linux-based laptop. The OS and most Linux programs don't take up much room, so even an 8-12G SSD (or 30GB HD to be generous) would be fine and a SD/microSD card reader would then allow the user to take on the cost of additional storage based on his/her needs. If the timing's just right, the company could take advantage of others pushing towards super-high resolutions by buying the WXGA or XGA screens at a huge discount.
I don't know the OS costs, so it's hard to comment much on them -- but there are at least a few computer repair/building services out there that sell PCs they've set up with very newbie-friendly Linux distros and have had a lot of very satisfied/repeat customers, which suggests it's possible to pull it off; seeking out those successful geeks and finding out their "secrets" might be the wisest approach. The most important thing there, I believe, would be to ensure the customers know that the computer wouldn't run Windows, so there's no confusion/shock when they go to use it (as with the netbooks a few years ago); hell, with word out now that Windows 8 is a giant clusterfuck, it shouldn't be hard to market the fact that the OS isn't Windows as a desirable thing.
Re:bets? (Score:4, Interesting)
But
Android has no shell (Score:1, Interesting)
I am an Android app developer. But I won't buy a laptop with Android.
In linux, and even on Windows, you can open a shell and have access to the OS of your computer. Android doesn't have such a thing. Which means, you can use your Android laptop only in the way the vendor intended you to. You have access to settings only through the UI, which is, to the settings that the vendor allows you to change. I would buy an Android laptop only if I can get a shell with it that gives me access to the full OS.
Re:In other words... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I still don't want touch screen (Score:3, Interesting)
Alas, microsoft killed any hope for such laptops... Once you have hardware capable of running windows, you need a much larger battery if you want decent runtime, more cooling to accommodate the hotter running components, larger storage etc.
A small laptop running a non crippled linux distro would be awesome, and would sell well if properly marketed, but it seems noone is willing to push such a device.
It has been said for years that a linux laptop wouldn't sell, and yet most of the reasons cited have been debunked already for instance:
a, it wont sell without windows - people are happy to access the internet on ipads, android devices etc, 99% of people don't need windows and are better off without it.
b, people wont like it if they cant buy boxed software in a store - linux distributions have always had a repository model, supposedly users wouldn't like this and would rather install software from optical media, but apple and google have proven this to be false - users actually prefer the convenience of a single place to get software and having it updated in a central location is extremely beneficial for security too.
c, users wont like if they buy peripherals and they end up not working - you cant buy random peripherals for an ipad either, you just take a bunch of existing peripherals which you know work out of the box with linux and resell them as "accessories" designed to work with your device. Very few people will just buy random junk anyway, they will look for accessories marketed as being *for* the device they already have.
You just need to sell decent hardware, at a decent price point, with a non crippled linux distribution and some level of marketing.
Re:bets? (Score:5, Interesting)
Well obviously this Intel Android Laptop is not targeted at you. Everyone knows exactly who it will be targeted at, Android phone users who want to do a little bit more and need the keyboard and screen interface and of course tossed in with an Android phone contract, a pretty good and could be a well targeted sweetener, with an interface they are already accustomed to. What will be interesting is how much data storage expansion the device allows for and how readily an Android phone can be hooked up to it to transfer data and charge the phone.
Re:Intel has to do this... (Score:4, Interesting)
Intel are now facing the same issues the highend RISC vendors faced in the 90s...
Having the fastest processors available isn't enough, it wasn't for Alpha, PPC or MIPS and it wont be for Intel. Cheaper processors may be slower, but they sell in much larger volume, cost a lot less, use less power and are still adequate for people's needs.
Heavy edit (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:bets? (Score:4, Interesting)
I never really understood how webOS, as neglected and stillborn as it was, had a native X11 client (server, whatever, bite me) written for it by some community fan. But Android with its gazillion users never has, at least not that I ever found. Maybe some good technical reason for that which is over my head, but it seems odd.
Re:Intel to compete against Chinese $9 ARM chips? (Score:3, Interesting)
Bitch please, enough of those bad jokes.
$200 Android tablets use $9-20 ARM A9 dual-quad core SOCs. How is Intel going to compete with that? Give chips for free and make it up in volume?
Intel should make a new architecture that's better than ARM (battery life, performance/watt) and then work with Microsoft for Windows support. Atom+Windows is a delaying tactic, letting Intel and Microsoft collect as much rent as possible. Making a new architecture would be a savior for both companies:
* Intel can gain market share from exclusive Microsoft support. Notice how Windows doesn't really support ARM because the device has to be locked down; so you can't just throw Window on whatever cheap hardware you buy from Taiwan.
* Microsoft can gain near-monopoly status in small devices by tying Windows support on the new architecture to their other software (Office/AD/Exchange/.Net/SqlServer) rather than supporting open standards. All they need to do is use "unique" hardware features as justification, i.e. the encryption/network transport/cross chip memory access system/etc.. only works with Windows on the new architecture.
Ironically, Intel and Microsoft would be called "innovators" for recreating their monopolies like this.
Re:bets? (Score:5, Interesting)
Every time I think of Microsoft hating their customers I think back to one of their old ad campaigns where they actively and blatantly made fun of their customers. [openaccess.co.za]
Re:"game changer" (Score:4, Interesting)
You 6-digit username kids might not remember this
Says the poster with a 6-digit slashdot ID using terms like M$. This is not the best way to come across as a fountain of wisdom.