timeline

Apple punts on lower-cost MacBook

By not coughing up a low-cost MacBook, as some had expected, Apple has ceded a potentially huge market to PC makers. But is this just all part of Apple's marketing genius?

The announcement Tuesday of the $999 white polycarbonate MacBook was pretty ho-hum as product refreshes go (same price, same color as before) but the implication was important: Apple is surrendering a large, emerging laptop market to Microsoft and its coterie of PC makers.

Not that it's necessarily a bad strategy. Market researcher Gartner said recently that Apple's shipments in the U.S. grew year-over-year by 6.8 percent to total 1.57 million during the third quarter, putting it right behind Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Acer. Comparatively, overall PC shipments in the U.S. grew by 3.5 percent from a year earlier.

But among those unimpressive overall PC numbers (HP's third-quarter shipments grew only 2.7 percent), was an impressive statistic for Acer: buoyed by Netbooks, Acer's shipments grew by 61.4 percent year-over-year, and it blew past Dell to become the No. 2 PC maker worldwide based on this growth.

Granted, Netbooks are a relatively low-profit segment (i.e., profit on a $400 Netbook is going to be a lot less than that on a $999 laptop). Nevertheless, they're a hot market. Intel CEO Paul Otellini has stated numerous times that Intel was able to create a market that grew faster than either the iPhone or Nintendo Wii. Case in point: Windows 7-based Acer Netbooks are now big on the Home Shopping Network--which claims to have sold more than 5,000 in one segment on Saturday.

And that's not the only market Apple is punting on. A new category of inexpensive, thin laptops has emerged with the roll-out of Windows 7 on Thursday. Like Netbooks, these laptops are light (typically 4 pounds) and don't include an optical drive. But they are relatively powerful and full featured. The 15.6-inch Acer Aspire Timeline, for example, with a 320GB hard disk drive and dual-core Intel processor is fairly well-endowed at only $500.

Apple is not receiving a lot kudos in the mainstream business press… Read more

With Windows 7 comes Netbook, notebook confusion

Dell, Acer, Intel, and others together are, in effect, creating a muddle of light laptop categories as part of a not-so-well-orchestrated marketing strategy, according to an analyst. This is expected to become particularly acute when a deluge of new Windows 7 laptops hit the market this week.

Acer offered a graphic example of this recently when it introduced a small, inexpensive Windows 7 notebook--the Aspire Timeline AS1810T--that, from all outward appearances, looks like a Netbook. But it isn't--at least as defined by Intel. It's a new category of laptop called an ultrathin.

"There's a lot of confusion that Intel has created and they haven't really segmented the market that well," according to Bob O'Donnell, an IDC Research vice president.

And it gets more complicated. The inexpensive ultrathin is, in turn, competing now with the expensive luxury laptops, like the Dell Adamo, according to O'Donnell. "Ironically, what's actually happening we think is that the (ultrathin) is actually killing the high-end ultraportable," O'Donnell said.

Here's the problem: any given Windows 7 laptop with an 11.6- or 12-inch screen could be a Netbook, an ultrathin, or a high-end ultraportable, each with distinctly different price-performance characteristics not readily apparent to consumers.

"There's too many overlapping products," according to O'Donnell. Intel tried to prevent this from happening by declaring that any laptop with a screen larger than 10 inches diagonally is not a Netbook. That policy is fine in theory but does not carry over to the real world of head-butting competition among PC makers where even the subtlest production differentiation can mean a leg up on the competition.

Intel says look at performance and price. "Which offers the best performance overall? That's important," said Intel spokesman Bill Calder. "Pricing is a factor too. While some ultrathin laptops including 11.6 and higher are very affordable, none are in the $249 to $399 range that typically defines a Netbook," Calder said.

Some consumers might say it's not a big deal. But… Read more

Intense Intel-AMD rivalry set for light laptops

The chief executives of Intel and Advanced Micro Devices indicated this week that competition will heat up in the market for sleek, inexpensive laptops running Windows 7.

Both CEOs addressed this new market during conference calls after their companies reported earnings this week. Ultrathin laptops are inexpensive, light laptops--typically between $500 and $800--that are sold in a market segment just above less expensive Netbooks.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini on Tuesday said his company is gearing up to supply more power-efficient chips that contain two processing cores for better performance. "The bulk of the units that have shipped to date … Read more

Acer adds a couple of new Windows 7 laptops

PC maker Acer is adding another pair of laptops to its Windows 7 laptop lineup. The two entries are a 15.6-inch touchscreen system, called the Aspire 5738PG; and a 11.6-inch addition to the Timeline series, called the Aspire Timeline AS1810TZ.

The touchscreen Aspire 5738PG has a multi-touch display that can understand two-finger gestures, but in a standard laptop design instead of a convertible tablet. We've seen something similar recently with the Lenovo ThinkPad T400s.

The Aspire Timeline AS1810TZ has an 11-inch Netbook chassis, but instead of the Intel Atom CPU, it has the dual-core Intel SU7300 -- … Read more

Helpful schedule tracker

Timeline Maker Professional creates clear, impressive scheduling charts in minutes.

The program's interface is professional and welcoming, starting with some helpful tutorials and moving on to an intuitive layout at every turn. The program feels like operating a calendar system, like the one found on Microsoft Outlook, but its results look very different. After entering in event information like start and stop times, you see a clear timeline of your event. Each step is shown in a highly readable text bubble along a timeline. It is easy to see when each step was happening thanks to the color-coded system. … Read more

Acer Timeline 11.6-inch ULV: A Netbook beater?

The beauty of breaking out of the Windows XP mold is saying good-bye to Microsoft's set limitations on Netbook power (most notably, 1GB of RAM). Setting the stage for the fall's next-gen Battle of the Future Netbooks, Acer's as-yet-unofficial (according to Acer) Timeline 1810T has all the trimmings that place it head and shoulders above the currently Atom N270 and N280-dominated crowd. Leaked photos have hit online, and it looks like a fusion between Acer's Aspire One line and its super-slim, recently reviewed Timeline 3810T.

First off, it has a ULV processor that's faster than Atom Netbooks by a fair margin. Then there's the HD video decoding. Also, the 1810T can support up to 4GB of RAM. Other bonuses include HDMI, b/g/n Wi-Fi, and the ability to upgrade to Windows 7 (because it runs Windows Vista Home Premium).

Details revealed so far:

1.4GHz Intel ULV SU3500 processor 11.6-inch 1366x768 screen Intel GS45 Express chipset Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics Up to 4GB RAM HDMI Bluetooth 2.1+EDR 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Optional 3G Eight-hour battery life (similar to the 3810T)

More pics after the break:… Read more

Apple MacBook Air: Encore please

The Apple MacBook Air has remained almost unchanged for a year and a half--a testament to the staying power of its design. So, how will Apple respond to the wave of inexpensive, ultra-thin lookalikes hitting the market over the next six months?

The Air was a sensation when it debuted in January of 2008. Not that it sold by the boatloads, but the stunning form factor set off an industrial-design frenzy. Ergo, the Dell Adamo and the raft of "ultra-thin" laptops in the hopper as a result of Intel's push to get its "ULV" (ultra-low-voltage) … Read more

Intel's sales chief talks Netbooks vs. notebooks

Unleashing innovation is key no matter what laptop category you're talking about--whether Netbooks or low-cost notebooks, said Intel's sales chief, ahead of this week's Computex trade show in Taipei.

I spoke briefly with Intel's marketing chief Sean Maloney--who is at Computex this week--on Monday night and asked him about how the wave of low-cost, thin notebooks based on his company's "ULV" (ultra-low-voltage) chips may affect Netbook sales.

New, aesthetically appealing, inexpensive notebooks, such as the $699 Acer Aspire Timeline, could make Netbooks less attractive, which pin a lot of their popularity on bargain-basement … Read more

Battery life comes first in Acer Aspire Timeline laptops

Now that surfing the Net while flying is no longer new, I really want a computer that can last the entire flight from San Francisco to NYC, which is about 6 hours long.

Acer seems to have a solution for that. On Tuesday, the company announced its newest Aspire Timeline series, which it claims offers more than 8 hours of battery life on average in one charge. If this is true, it'll really set a new standard for mobility and productivity.

According to Acer, the Aspire Timeline series achieved this extended battery life thanks to a combination of factors, including a unique design, Intel's ultralow-voltage processors, advanced power management, high-capacity batteries, and LED backlit displays. The result is a series of laptops that are thinner, lighter, and much more energy-efficient than other laptops.

The best thing about the new Aspire Timeline series, however, is the price. Ranging from $598 to $899, the Timelines are among the most affordable laptops.

However, there's a catch and it's rather big: the three laptops in this series use very low-performance CPUs.… Read more