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MacBook Air-alikes on the way
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 1st February 2008
If you're in the market for an Air it might be an idea to wait to see what the 'free market' has to offer.
Laptop manufacturers Lenovo – the company responsible for building IBM notebooks for lo these many years – and Fujitsu-Siemens are planning to buy in the specially-designed low-power Core 2 Duo chip used in the Air and build their own designs around it, if rumours currently circulating are true.
The custom Core 2 Duo, specially tweaked for minimal physical size, heat output and low-voltage running, was requested of Intel by Apple specifically for the Air ultra-slim notebook. Intel, ever the opportunist, designed the chip for Apple and are now touting it to anyone who's interested. The brazen hussies.
Lenovo and Fujitsu have yet to officially comment on their plans, but if they're shelling out for the custom chip it seems likely that they're looking to build an Air-style ultra-portable. If not, it would seem like a waste of an expensive chip when they could just use a standard mobile Core 2 Duo for a fraction of the cost.
Keep your eyes peeled over the coming months, as I think the Eee and the Air are just the start of the mass-market UMPC trend.
What would you prefer: to buy from a company known for stunning design and extortionate pricing, or a company known for producing robust units that are completely uninspiring to look at? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Comments (22)Stats: 0.133 seconds
I don’t buy Apple products, so it’s always nice to see other companies compete with Apple.
Although I must admit that Apple do bring out some very nice looking products.
In my hands??! Would HAVE to be robustness, with an uninsiring look as a by product :(
EEE = screen too small
i want a Air-like notebook, that's around 300 pound mark (spec doesn't matter) yet it has less than 12inch screen, relatively thin, with very, very good battery life.
kick away lenovo, kick away
x300 sure looks superb, not sure about price tag though.
I'm consufed
Lenovo is a chinese company that bought IBM's Thinkpad laptop line. If you look closely, you'll notice that their new laptops don't even say IBM anymore.
The Thinkpad is a lot better on paper - it has loads of wireless connectivity (Bluetooth, 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wireless USB, WWAN, WiMax, GPS; I didn't even know you could get wireless USB) And it has an optical drive and 3 USB ports and weighs 1.1KG!
Awesome! *wants*
Suck it, apple.
Lenovo bought IBM's PC manufacturing division with all their trademarks, and a license to use the IBM brand name for a year. the license to use the IBM name has now run out, so thinkpads (and all other old ibm lines) now have the lenovo name on them.
QFT
You gotta give it to Apple though, like Asus they innovate and don't just follow the wannbe crowd like so many other notebook manufacturers.
1.)As a retired Big Blue employee, I beat a couple Thinkpads to death and that takes an awful effort. If they keep the quality of the Thinkpads I'll buy that one.
2.) Apple is like Levis -Just paying for the name and the bragging rights.
John
Without Apple you'd still be typing on a (possibly painted) grey box running a Windows 98-a-like OS, while playing your music on a clunky walkman.
Probably a bit of an exaggeration, computer modding would have taken off anyway and companies would have had to pay attention. I dont really think windows has come on that much since 98, the move to NT would still have happened. We probably wouldnt have all the shiny Aero thing going off on Vista and 64-bit would probably be having an even harder time taking off. But I cant see how Apple are responsible for giving the computer market a kick. Us lot would have done it with our demands for improvement.
There were some nice portable players before the ipod, the higher end minidisk players for example. Apple just made it all alot more idiot friendly.
Apple didn't invent the mp3 player
I don't really see what all the fuss is about. If I want a small laptop, I'll get an eee. Does anything I want a tiny laptop to do, is cheap, and only the size of a book.
Maybe so but the first ones were fugly:P
My point exactly. Apple didn't invent the home computer either, but they sure as hell improved on the concept.