laptop and notebook

Skytone Transmission Technologies, based in Guangzhou, China, says it is just three months away from producing the world’s first Android-powered netbook, the Alpha 680.   The new device is powered by the ARM11 533 Mhz processor, with a paltry 128MB RAM expandable to 256MB, 1 or 4GB Solid State Drive, 7-inch LCD monitor with 800-by-480 resolution, two USB ports, an SD card slot, Wi-Fi, optional 3G antenna, an unspecified keyboard size, and a two-cell battery with approximately two to four hours of battery life.

Skytone is currently having trouble getting about 20 percent of Android apps to function on the netbook because of compatibility issues, but Skytone is working to solve those problems and expects to have a market-ready product by the summer, according to Computerworld. The news comes after Computerworld’s Seth Weintraub last week came across the Alpha 680 on the Skytone Website.

The Alpha 680 is notable not only for its Android OS but also the ARM11 processor, which could put the Alpha 680 in the sub-$200 price range. ARM may be a relatively unknown name to you, but ARM chips are popular among mobile device manufacturers because ARM chips use less energy and are cheaper, while still delivering adequate processing power. You can find ARM chips in many well-known mobile devices, including iPhones and iPods. One Laptop Per Child’s upcoming XO-2 may also use ARM chips to improve power efficiency over the x86 processor found in OLPC’s XO laptop designed for children in the developing world.

The Android-powered Alpha 680 first made a public appearance earlier this month at an electronics trade show in Hong Kong before Weintraub discovered it online. However, before you get too excited, it’s possible the Alpha 680 may never make an appearance in U.S. stores. Skytone doesn’t actually manufacture anything, but merely licenses its product designs to manufacturers. HP, Asus and others are already rumored to be coming out with their own Android netbooks in the near future and those will undoubtedly have more power than Skytone’s Alpha 680.

However, co-founder Nixon Wu says that suits Skytone just fine. Wu told Computerworld that Skytone’s goal, similar to that of OLPC’s, is to “bring low-cost computing to the “80 percent of the world that can’t afford it today” and that his product should not be compared to those of manufacturers that cater to the Western market. Skytone is focused on bringing computing to less affluent parts of the world that still need access to the Web, so having enough power for tasks like “watching TV over the Internet is not the most urgent thing.” Without enough power and raging competition from Windows netbooks, the Alpha 680 would most likely find itself outmatched anyway.

The real issue surrounding the Alpha 680 for American consumers is the breaking of the Android-in-netbooks barrier. With the imminent release of the first Android netbook and major manufacturers expected to produce their own Android-powered models, the question is: How will this affect a market where Windows XP is currently the netbook OS king? There has been speculation that Google’s Linux-based Android could be a real threat to Windows XP and the upcoming Windows 7 on netbooks. However, even for Google, unseating Windows from the netbook market will be no easy feat. As was pointed out in this week’s PC World podcast, right now several Linux flavors can be found on netbooks, but those netbooks are usually only about $50 cheaper than comparable Windows machines and are typically harder to use than the more familiar Microsoft interface. There are some exceptions to that, such as Ubuntu, but Google’s Android OS will have to overcome high expectations from everyday users if it wants to rival Windows.

It’s human nature to get on the bandwagon of a “good thing.” Take the screaming hype that is the netbook phenomenon, for example. Although it’s clear the netbook trend is real, my hype meter wagged over into the “tilt” field when I read these words from Dan Nystedt of the IDG News Service:

“The network will truly become the computer, as Sun Microsystems used to say. Or in more modern terms, the Cloud for consumers will have arrived.”

Nystedt was writing to express surprise at Apple COO Tim Cook’s recent negative comments about netbooks. Like Nystedt, I don’t think any computer manufacturer can afford to ignore the netbook trend. I’ve even suggested in the past that Apple deliver a low-cost, netbook-style Mac.

I also can’t agree with Cook that the netbook experience is voided by what he described as “cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens, and just not a consumer experience” during a quarterly financial conference call on Wednesday. On the other hand, Cook’s apparent condemnation of all existing netbooks does not mean that Apple is pooh-poohing the entire idea. Macworld’s editor in chief, Jason Snell, makes this point better than I could in his article Apple to netbooks: Drop dead.

Snell writes: “Apple … often runs down its competitors in a category before introducing its own game-changing product in that category.” I’ve found that statement to be true as well.

If you buy into that interpretation, Cook’s comments imply that Apple’s netbook product, if it has one, is likely to be one of two things:

1.) An iPhone 3.0 software-based, iPhone-derivative tablet-like device that Apple does not at all position as a netbook, but that is likely to be half smartphone, half small form-factor computer. Apple’s incredible success with its iPhone App Store has to be factored into the advantage that such a device would have.

2.) A lower-cost Mac with limitations that keep it from cutting into other Mac sales, but with a very intriguing, game-changing hardware design. More than likely, this option isn’t close to launch.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is also positioning Windows 7 for netbooks, and the message seems to be clear to me — it’s aimed at netbook manufacturers: You want to use Windows 7 on netbooks? We’re going to use some of our power at generating negative press to out-muscle you into paying the full notebook freight for Windows 7 instead of the lesser price for reduced-functionality Windows 7. Microsoft isn’t targeting this at netbook buyers. If it were, it wouldn’t be sending the message now. It would wait and quietly slip it under the rug at Windows 7 launch time.

I bet Microsoft wins this game, too. If your company requires Microsoft Office, and it’s thinking about buying netbooks, it needs Windows XP or Windows 7 on those netbooks. Either way, limiting simultaneous apps to three is an IT helpdesk headache waiting to bloom.

But the netbook phenomenon isn’t really about Apple or Microsoft. At least, not yet. And this is the kicker: Many people love the small form-factor, light-weight design of netbooks. Such computers are appealing to a wide range of potential buyers, everything from casual computer users to on-the-go and even advanced business people (as travel computers). And there can be no denying that more and more enterprises are considering netbooks because of their need to reduce costs in a tough economy.

That brings me to the main point: It’s really no secret why the netbook phenomenon got kicked into high gear about six months ago. It’s about money and the most severe economic downturn in most people’s lifetimes. Take that out of the equation, and netbooks would still be on the rise, but they would be being considered by far fewer potential customers. So a big part of the netbook hype cycle was fueled by the money savings. Nothing wrong with that. But I question whether it’s a long-term phenomenon.

What’s going to happen when the economy comes back? It probably won’t happen overnight, since many people’s financial change in perspective will linger long after the downturn becomes history. But the strongest motivator — saving money — will no longer be there. And the focus on netbooks may start to dissipate at that point. The desire to save money is not enough of demographic on which to hang a rapidly growing product category.

Cook has a point, too. The cramped keyboards, limited OSes and apps, constrained specs, and small screens may get old for at least some netbook users over time. Less is more only to a point. And then it just becomes, well, less.

The single most important factor in the future of notebooks, however, may not be the economy or even the netbook OS platforms like Android, Linux and Windows 7. The future of the product category probably hinges on hardware innovation yet to arrive. It’s an immature product category. If hardware makers can move beyond making very small portable computers cheaply with well considered trade-offs, and can transition into creating hardware that becomes more or less indispensable, that’s what will make the trend stick.

The obvious direction for that kind of innovation would be convergence of netbooks with smartphones. That’s the direction that many Android-based netbooks are likely to head. But could mobile convergence divide the netbook category in two? I think that’s quite possible. Netbook buyers are not all highly mobile, nor are they all interested in paying the monthly subscription fees for 3G data services.

I don’t have the answers. No one does. But the questions are fascinating enough on their own

There goes Apple, trash-talking netbooks again. Tim Cook, the company’s chief operating officer, had harsh words yesterday for the current crop of inexpensive mini-notebooks, calling them “junky” with cramped keyboards and bad software. “It’s a stretch to call them a personal computer,” he said.

Ouch.

While I wouldn’t call all netbooks junk, Cook’s criticisms are valid. My biggest gripe with every mini-note I’ve tried is the tiny keyboard. It’s an ergonomic disaster. My hands aren’t huge, but I can’t type on these things for longer than an hour. So if Apple does enter the netbook category — and I believe it will, sooner rather than later — it should address the keyboard issue first.

Here’s my suggestion: Apple should bring back the “butterfly keyboard” — or a variation of it — used by IBM for a brief period back in the 1990s. For those of you too young to remember, or those who were distracted by watching their stock portfolios rise and fall back then, the butterfly device was a fold-out keyboard featured on the IBM ThinkPad 701 series. It consisted of two halves; when opened it extended over the sides of the laptop, thereby creating a more spacious keyboard than those found in competing notebooks at the time.

Called TrackWrite, the clever design generated a lot of media buzz when it first appeared in 1995. The fold-out keyboard didn’t last long, however, in part because the move toward larger displays made it irrelevant. (The ThinkPad 701 had a 10.4-inch display, similar to today’s netbooks.) I always liked the concept, though, and had hoped that IBM or another vendor would bring it back someday.

Now the time has come. The emergence of the netbook has brought back many of the ergonomic woes of early portables, including cramped keyboards and small screens. Would Apple ever license TrackWrite from IBM? I doubt it. The company’s pride and not-invented-here attitude would never let that happen. But you never know.

Some users may see the touch screen as a better alternative to a fold-out keyboard. I don’t think so. A touch screen is nice for some things, and it’s a good fit with handheld gadgets like the iPhone. But for touch typists who write long documents for extended periods of time, a touch screen could never replace the keyboard. It’s too slow and clunky.

Voice input? Sure, someday. But not yet. For now, we’re stuck with the keyboard. So why not a fold-out keyboard for netbooks?