A netbook for Lenovo
There is little doubt that netbooks based on Intel Atom Processor have taken the PC World by storm. Their tiny size and decent functionality have made it quite popular among students and travelling professionals. Most of the basic computing needs like word processing, internet browsing, instant messaging, voip and media playback could be comfortably done on a netbook.
In the last few weeks or so, there is some hype surrounding Netbook 2.0 which are nothing but tiny laptops based on ARM processors like the Qualcomm Snapdragon. Since ARM processors are designed to work on embedded devices and mobile phones, they consume very little power when compared to Intel x86 processors. This results in a much longer battery life than the current crop of netbooks. Snapdragon processor is now available at a frequency of 1GHz, which is a first for any processor using the ARM architecture. Because of the performance and long battery life, most technology sites are predicting that ARM based netbooks will take over the world and could pose a serious threat to CPU manufacturers like Intel and AMD on the netbook front.
Give me Windows please
While everything else seems right, there is a serious problem with ARM based netbooks. Currently, the only desktop OS that is available for ARM is Linux. While Linux is great for geeks, common man on the street still prefers Windows. I have been using Linux for several years and I am happy to see that the usability of Unix desktop environments like Gnome and KDE are growing by leaps and bounds. But the unforunate fact is that most people learn their computers with Windows and they grow up using Windows. Using Linux means switching to a new environment and a new set of applications like OpenOffice etc., Many start using these for a few days and then end up installing Windows.
Microsoft has not ported Windows to ARM and neither will they in the future. This means all ARM based netbooks will either run Linux or a tweaked version of Android OS. Considering that netbooks with Windows outsell those with Linux by a ratio of 9:1, it will be a tall order for “Netbooks 2.0″ to set the laptop market on fire. We can expect Intel or AMD based netbooks to rule the market for a long time to come.
