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The latest news from IDF about Tablet PCs and Netbooks
September 14, 2010
Right now I am sitting in a technical session, “How to Build an Intel Atom Processor Based Tablet PC or Innovative Netbook”. Looking around the Intel Developer’s Forum it is clear that netbooks are still a strong and viable market for Intel. I just wrote a Semico Spin challenging the view that tablet PCs will eat up the market for netbooks.
At IDF Intel is actively marketing solutions for both netbooks and tablet PCs. There are demos from OEMs for both featuring Intel Atom of course. Many Atom tablet PCs will ship in 4Q 2010. This technical session clearly shows that internally there is little difference between the two products.
The differences come down to touch screen, keyboard, and OS. One can also say that the applications that end users want to run will be different. When the subject of tablet PC vs netbook first came up my immediate response was that over time the form factors would evolve and likely merge to form a hybrid design. At that point I would likely dovetail the two separate lines in my forecast into one and call it “ultra-portable.”
It seems that the evolution of a hybrid design was faster than I thought. I had envisioned a product with a touch screen that could flip around and you would then have a keyboard available. Today, Sept. 14, 2010, during the keynote address, a representative from Dell showed off exactly this kind of design. The Dell Inspiron Duo will be available at the end of this year.
It does not seem that Intel is worried about the demise of the netbook so soon after its birth. It is also nurturing another emerging market, the tablet PC. There is room for both since consumers have different needs.
More to come from IDF 2010.
Tony Massimini
Chief of Technology
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