The Netbook Invention
Many people, I would say most of people, do not need high performance computers. Only a few people (like graphic designers) need powerful computers. The most common tasks (e-mail, Web surfing etc.) do not need a big processing power, so why the PC industry has flooded the market with powerful machines for so long time ? Because the profit margins were very high, obviously. So, which is the alternative? A netbook of course. It was invented by Mary Lou Jepsen in order to give to the children, in developing countries, the opportunity to have a computer.
The netbook had to be very cheap as first requirement; it had to be equipped with a full keyboard and a color screen ; it had to be small and able to run on minimal power; it had to be Wi Fi. Miss Jepsen decided to use a flash memory instead of a HD because it did not break if dropped. As software she used Linux and other free open source packages to avoid paying Microsoft's wares. Miss Jepsen did not know she was creating an earthquake in the computer's world: traditionally people looked for high end models, after netbook invention people look for low end models.
Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-03/mf_netbooks?current...
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The Netbook
The Netbook is not really an invention. It is more of a beautiful adaptation that took a lot of innovation on the part of people like Ms.Jensen. Curiously it triggered the this big demand for a simple device that is ultra-portable and can give you simple functionality. Many of the current Netbook buyers are already PC owners!
Netbook
x86 based netbooks still quote about USB 250. The ultra low cost netbooks (USD 100-150) are actually using other RISC architectures: ARM, PowerPC and MIPS. However these RISC has no obvious cost advantage over x86. Because if they share same component with PC architecture, the other components are identical. The RISC computers can saving money in north bridge and CPU, because they are almost SoC with onchip periperals. The ultra low cost netbooks usually have restricted hardware performance, for example, RISC processor under 500MHz, slower and lower capacity of SDRAM, internal flash memory. The performance is almost like a smart phone.
Yes, computers are anywhere now.
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