Everex targets Eee PC with higher spec mini laptop at same price
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Mini PC launched too CES Everex, the US-based PC selling division of Taiwan's First International Computer (FIC), this week took the fight to Asus' popular Eee PC sub-notebook. It also launched a desktop-oriented mini PC.â¦
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Wal-Mart Inc. opened its campaign for the back-to-school PC sales season on Wednesday by unveiling a US$298 desktop from Everex that combines three of the most popular industry trends-- open-source software, a power-efficient processor, and a lack of &quot;bloatware.&quot;
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Unreleased CloudBook follow-up named Not content with mounting a serious challenge to Asus' elfin Eee PC, US manufacturer Everex this week said it will follow up its 7in CloudBook sub-notebook with larger models later in the year.â¦
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In an attempt to broaden its reach, PC maker Alienware has uneviled a stylishly chic, compact PC for home users. The Miami-based PC maker is best known for building extreme desktops--machines that cost thousands--for gamers.
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CAMBRIDGE - With orders for its rugged XO laptop falling short of its initial goal, the One Laptop Per Child project announced today that it would let consumers in the United States and Canada buy the cute computer for a limited time.
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But bigger displays and WiMax coming in Q2 CES Asus today committed itself to expanding its Eee PC line-up not only with WiMax wireless broadband-enabled versions but also machines with 7, 8 and 8.9in displays. They'll appear in Q2, Asus said.â¦
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Wal-Mart began selling $298 PCs from Everex on Wednesday that use Windows Vista, are free of so-called "bloatware" and feature open source software.
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(InfoWorld) - Taiwan's First International Computer (FIC) will unveil an ultraportable PC at the Computex show this week in Taipei. The CE260 is based on a 1.2GHzÂ C7-M processor from Via Technologies, has a 7-inch touchscreen display with 800 pixels by 480 pixels resolution, and boasts a five-hour battery life, the company said in a statement. Weighing in at just under 1 kilogram, the machine packs 802.11b/g wireless networking, a wired LAN port, and a 4-in-1 card reader slot. FIC is a contract PC maker and doesn't sell machines under its own brand. The CE260 will be on show at Computex in front of buyers from the world's PC vendors and available to them to customize and market under their own brand. Possible additions to the base specification include a detachable clock/calendar, Skype phone, DVB-T digital TV Tuner or GPS (global positioning system) module. Taiwan is a major manufacturer of PC and consumer electronics goods and Computex, which takes place annually in Taipei, brings the island's IT manufacturers together with buyers from big-name electronics brands and retailers from around the world. Ever since Intel unveiled its ultramobile PC platform at Cebit 2006 and Samsung Electronics took the wraps off the first machine based on that platform,Â the Q1,Â there has been increased interest in the market for sub-notebook-size laptops. Machines matching the form factorÂ are expected to be a big theme of Computex 2007.
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More desktop, notebook Eee-alikes on the way Intel has brought forward the launch of its 'Shelton' platform for budget-priced PCs, it has been claimed. Originally due in Q3, the technology for desktops and notebooks will now debut in May.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Virtual Iron and XenSource both are introducing new virtualization software to undercut on price the dominant player in the field, VMware. On Monday, Virtual Iron is set to start offering Version 3.1 of its enterprise-class virtualization platform for a license price of $499 per socket, which is less than 20 percent of the $2,875 per socket price for a comparable VMware license, according to Virtual Iron. Virtual Iron argues that VMware's pricing is a barrier to more widespread adoption of virtualization in data centers, citing IDC research that only 6 percent of data center operators deploy any type of virtualization. Also Monday, XenSource introduced new and upgraded virtualization products, also at sub-$1,000 prices. Both XenSource and Virtual Iron build their proprietary products on top of the open-source Xen platform for virtualization hypervisors. A hypervisor is technology that makes it possible for one computer to run multiple operating systems at the same time. VMware's products are not based on open source. Virtualization refers to software and other system management tools that are used to better utilize servers. Virtualization makes it possible for one physical server to run multiple applications simultaneously. Advanced virtualization features include tools to seamlessly move computing workloads from one physical server to another, set up infrastructure and test new software. Revenue at VMware, a wholly owned subsidiary of storage vendor EMC, grew 86 percent in EMC's fiscal third quarter to $188.5 million. If that pace keeps up, VMware's annualized revenue would be $750 million, VMware said. Virtual Iron and XenSource intend to slow that pace. "We are taking a very aggressive stand on pricing," said Mike Grandinetti, chief marketing officer for Virtual Iron. The Charlotte Observer newspaper in North Carolina uses Virtual Iron. It took 45 minutes to run a particular job on its legacy Unix-based servers, said Geoff Shorter, the Observer's IT infrastructure manager. VMware completed the same job in 11 to 13 minutes, but so did the less expensive Virtual Iron. The license for the high-end VMware product costs $5,750 to run on a dual-socket server, Shorter said. Virtual Iron's license is $499 per socket, so the total cost for a dual-socket machine license would be $998. Pricing for XenSource's XenEnterprise starts at for $488 for an annual subscription license for a dual-socket server or $750 for a perpetual license. XenServer for Windows, introduced Monday, sells for $99 per dual-socket server, per year. It has fewer features than XenEnterprise. "Our intention is to dramatically shift the landscape under VMware," said Simon Crosby, XenSource's chief technology officer. Virtualization is following a classic economic model of an early mover dominating a market and charging a premium, soon followed by challengers competing on price, said Gordon Haff, principal IT advisor at Illuminata Inc., a technology research company. Haff said enterprises that have deployed VMware are seeing a positive return on their investment despite the price and he doesn't think price alone is keeping enterprises from adopting virtualization. "Even if virtualization software were free, it wouldn't become ubiquitous because of the complexity of the implementation," he said.
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(InfoWorld) - Wal-Mart opened its campaign for the back-to-school PC sales season on Wednesday by unveiling a $298 desktop from Everex that combines three of the most popular industry trends -- open-source software, a power-efficient processor, and a lack of "bloatware." The Everex Impact GC3502 uses Microsoft's Windows Vista OS but substitutes the OpenOffice.org 2.2 version of word processing and spreadsheet tools for the traditional Microsoft Office variety. The computer runs on a 1.5GHz C7-D processor from Via Technologies, a chip that meets lead-free environmental regulations and saves energy with low wattage demands. The sales price does not include a monitor but is still lower than comparable packages sold on Wal-mart's Web site, such as an HP Compaq Presario, an Acer America AcerPower FH Minitower, and a Dell Dimension desktop. PC vendors usually compete for customers by slashing prices during the eight-week back-to-school season, stretching from mid-July to mid-September. But Everex also hopes to attract buyers by avoiding the free "trial software" that annoys many users, according to Eugene Chang, a product manager at Everex, of Fremont, California. Dell followed a similar strategy on July 10 when itÂ withheld bloatwareÂ from its newÂ Vostro line of PCsÂ for small business users after a long campaign by bloggers and Dell customers against common practice by PC vendors of loading unrequested software onto new computers. Software companies fund the effort as a way to find new users. Although those features are popular, they could backfire on Everex because most U.S. consumers are not yet familiar with Via processors or OpenOffice software, one analyst said. "It's not surprising that Wal-Mart, of all retailers, will sell the $298 Everex desktop; it's a good marriage with their biggest audience -- budget buyers," said Toni DuBoise, a senior analyst with Current Analysis West. "But it has a couple of problems; one is that it uses a Via processor, which is almost unknown to U.S. consumers. And it runs at just 1.5 GHz, so it's unknown how it will handle Microsoft Vista," she said. "And running OpenOffice is kind of a unique tactic. It's anti-Microsoft as Microsoft obviously owns the market for productivity software. So users may have some concerns about compatibility."
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At less than two pounds even with the battery pack, the Toshiba unit impressed PC World's reviewer with its versatility and overall performance. It's optimal for a small meeting of up to three people.
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Pesky Flash disks... Waiting for the 8GB Eee PC? Then you're going to have to wait a little longer - until April at least, it has been alleged, thanks to problems Asus is having getting the machine out of the door.â¦
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Adding Windows XP&#160;to Asustek Computer&#39;s Eee PC will double the price of the low-cost laptop compared to existing versions running Linux.The company will sell a version of the Eee PC with Windows XP in mature markets such as the U.S. and Europe for around US$1,000, while a configuration aimed at emerging market nations will cost about $500, said Jerry Shen, president of Asustek, during an investors conference Tuesday in Beitou, Taiwan.XP-based Eee PCs are expected to be available by the end of this year.The Eee PC is a low-cost laptop&#160;designed for children and emerging markets that weighs less than one kilogram, has a 7-inch LCD screen, and can connect to the Internet wirelessly. Asustek officially put the first version of the Eee PC, costing around NT$11,100 (US$340), on&#160;sale earlier this month&#160;in Taiwan. It runs a Linux OS from Xandros.The laptop PC will soon reach the U.S. and Europe.Asustek plans to launch the Linux-based Eee PC on Nov. 1 at retail stores in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Vancouver, and Toronto, and also through e-commerce Web sites in North America.On Nov. 9, the company will hold a launch ceremony in Germany, the first country in Europe to get its hands on the low-cost laptop.The company will launch the Eee PC in major Chinese cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, in mid-November.Asustek has shipped 100,000 Eee PCs so far this month to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand, said Shen, and he is targeting 400,000 units by the end of this year.Next year, Asustek forecasts it will ship 3.8 million Eee PCs.&quot;We&#39;re in talks with a few governments and we have already confirmed orders for one million units next year,&quot; said Sunny Han, global marketing director at the company.Asustek also reaffirmed its commitment to pushing the cost of the Eee PC down to US$199, nearly the same as the XO laptop developed by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project. OLPC is pricing the laptops at $200 according to its Givemany and Laptopgiving donor programs.One of the biggest costs for the Eee PC is taxes, said Shen. VAT (value added tax) and other taxes have a big impact on price. Governments interested in buying Eee PCs for education could get a better price by waiving such taxes, he said. An Eee PC sold to a government without taxes factored in would cost around $199, while the price goes up to about $300 with the taxes factored in.The configuration of the laptops also affects the price, with the amount of flash memory and DRAM (dynamic RAM), the camera and battery having the biggest influence, he said. The price of the kind of flash memory Asustek is using for data storage in the Eee PCs has gone up recently.Earlier this month, Asustek announced four Eee PC laptop configurations it planned to sell in stores and online, all running Linux software.The least expensive was the &quot;Surf&quot; with a 2GB flash memory drive and 256MB of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM, to retail for NT$7,999 (US$247) when it comes out around the end of November. Another version of the Surf included a 4GB flash drive and 512MB of DDR2 DRAM, and will cost NT$9,999 when it comes out in mid-November. Both laptops have an Intel microprocessor.Two higher-priced Eee PCs were also launched. The NT$11,100 version included a built-in camera and speakers, and can carry out simple voice commands such as &quot;computer, access the Internet,&quot; or &quot;computer, make a phone call.&quot; It contains a 900MHz Intel Celeron M processor, 512MB of DDR2 DRAM (double data rate, generation two dynamic RAM) and a 4GB flash drive. The other laptop, at NT$13,888 and due out at the end of November, carries an 8G-byte flash drive and 1G byte of DDR2 DRAM in addition to features similar to the NT$11,100 version.At the launch ceremony, Asustek also showed off one Eee PC running Microsoft Windows XP Professional, version 2002, service pack 2. The hardware on board was the same as for the NT$11,100 Linux-based Eee PC. The Windows Eee PC included Office 2003 versions of Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.&#160;
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Preview Smaller than a laptop, bigger than a PDA - the perfect PC size?
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From the "luggable" Apple IIc and Commodore SX-64 to today's Asus Eee PC, portable computers have gotten ever smaller and sleeker. Here are some favorites from days past.
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This miniature budget notebook may not be preloaded with Windows, but it ably serves most on-the-go computing needs.