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Asus Chairman Jonney Shih claims the outfit is still considering whether to launch a smartbook and what OS to use on it.
In an interview with ZDnet UK, Shih said he was not sure if consumers would be ready to sacrifice application compatibility of Windows and migrate to ARM-based smartbooks running a Linux OS.
"With the current Wintel-based Eee PC, the advantage is you still enjoy the compatibility," Shih said. "The smartbook is usually based on ARM — then you will have some advantage in the cost. This will further push the original direction of the netbook."
Shih pointed out that smartbooks could end up quite a bit cheaper than regular netbooks, but that it was still not clear whether consumers would go nuts over them. Asus created the smartbook craze in 2007, with its Eee PC 701, so it has a lot of experience in the market. Other manufacturers have also been slow to adopt the smartbook concept for a number of reasons, primarily compatibility issues.
Originally, netbooks were supposed to ship with Linux, but in the end it turned out the market didn't want an unfamiliar OS and paid a premium for XP instead. As a result, fewer and fewer netbooks are shipping with Linux, and some vendors have stopped shipping Linux based models altogether.
This happened despite the fact that netbooks were compatible with stripped down desktop versions of Windows, which is not the case with ARM-based smartbooks.
More here.
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Asus smartbook plans put on ice
Not sure anyone wants them
Asus Chairman Jonney Shih claims the outfit is still considering whether to launch a smartbook and what OS to use on it.
In an interview with ZDnet UK, Shih said he was not sure if consumers would be ready to sacrifice application compatibility of Windows and migrate to ARM-based smartbooks running a Linux OS.
"With the current Wintel-based Eee PC, the advantage is you still enjoy the compatibility," Shih said. "The smartbook is usually based on ARM — then you will have some advantage in the cost. This will further push the original direction of the netbook."
Shih pointed out that smartbooks could end up quite a bit cheaper than regular netbooks, but that it was still not clear whether consumers would go nuts over them. Asus created the smartbook craze in 2007, with its Eee PC 701, so it has a lot of experience in the market. Other manufacturers have also been slow to adopt the smartbook concept for a number of reasons, primarily compatibility issues.
Originally, netbooks were supposed to ship with Linux, but in the end it turned out the market didn't want an unfamiliar OS and paid a premium for XP instead. As a result, fewer and fewer netbooks are shipping with Linux, and some vendors have stopped shipping Linux based models altogether.
This happened despite the fact that netbooks were compatible with stripped down desktop versions of Windows, which is not the case with ARM-based smartbooks.
More here.