In an interview with Laptopmag Intel director of netbook marketing Anil Nanduri said Nvidia's ION is too expensive and unnecessary for netbooks.

Nanduri believes big graphics chips are overkill for netbooks, as third party HD decoders, such as Broadcom's part Fudo wrote about here, can do the job at a fraction of the cost.

"In terms of usages, netbooks are not meant for gaming. You can run Internet games fine today with the existing solutions. We believe (ION) adds unnecessary additional cost and the other trade-offs make it less desirable," said Nanduri. In all fairness, ION makes a lot more sense on nettops than netbooks, and that's where most manufacturers are using it.

Nanduri also expressed some skepticism about ARM-based smartbooks, saying no such devices have shown up on the market yet. We have to agree on this point. Although vendors have been showing off smartbook designs for months, they've failed to materialize on the market. The lack of a proper Windows OS for ARM platforms does not bode well for the concept at all.

More here.