Intel rides high on strong notebook demand

Intel says its business remains unaffected by the economic headwinds set loose by the subprime crisis.

Speaking with analysts following the release of its second-quarter earnings statement, Intel's brass remained upbeat about demand for Intel products--especially for notebook processors.

"We are very aware of the global economic issues which dominate the world these days," said Intel CEO Paul Otellini. But he quickly added that order patterns played out as expected in Q2 and that the company sees "continued healthy demand" in the third quarter.

That news may provide some relief to worried Wall Streeters, fretting about the impact of the banking crisis on IT demand. Notebook sales now comprise more than half of the market but they also carry lower average selling prices. Intel said that as notebook prices continue to decline in price, Intel expects to see increased demand.

"What we're seeing is a fundamental shift to notebooks," said Otellini, adding that the crossover transition was taking place six months sooner than expected.
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Upgrade your Eee PC with addon SSD chips

Love your Eee PC but hate its skimpy 4GB-20GB of SSD storage? Our most recent Eee PC, the 9-inch Eee 901, had a 12GB SSD chip (you can get 20GB in the Linux version), but even that makes it hard to install apps or store photos, music, and so on. The new 10-inch Eee PC will sport up to 40GB of SSD storage, but we're already talking about a US$699 laptop there.

As an alternative, memory maker Buffalo is working on 32GB and 64GB SSD chips that can plug right into the PCI-E slot on the Eee's motherboard (which is easily accessible under a panel on the laptop's bottom).

The chips are coming in September; expect to pay around US$150 for the 32GB version and US$300 for the 64GB version. These will no doubt be followed by even larger, cheaper versions down the road.

We've news as well that ASUS has a roadmap for yet more Eee PCs to come.

Via CNET Crave

And the Eee PC hits just keep comin'...

Are you a travel explorer, an editor, or student? Then does ASUS have the Eee PC for you! According to this slide image taken by Engadget Chinese, it looks like ASUS will soon have a total of 23 differently configured models of the widely known Eee PC Netbook series--this includes previously released models, as well as "coming soon", and "who knows when".

The pyramid is sectioned off into three groupings of Eee models and what type of user those models would be targeted to. Apparently for the Elite user (whatever that means) there's the high-end Ultimate model where the only features listed are that it is "exquisite" and "extremely slim and light". So, no clues there as to what the configuration on those would be, pricing, or when they'll become available. Although, if we haven't learned by now how quickly ASUS cranks these little fellas out, I'm sure they'll be coming down the pike soon enough.

Meanwhile, check out news on the upcoming addon SSD chips for the Eee PC .

Via CNET Crave

Report: Asus bringing "whole-day" battery life to Eee PC

It's been a slow week in Eee PC news--it's Friday and Crave has seen only one post thus far--so let us quickly share information from a report on DigiTimes today. According to the report, Asus expects to bring "whole-day" battery life and Internet storage to its Netbook by the end of the year. I'm not sure what a whole day's worth of online storage amounts to, but presumably it's more than the 20GB you get now with the solid-state hard drive in the Eee PC 1000.

The report doesn't specify how many hours make up a whole-day's worth of battery life (12 hours? 24 hours?). It must be more than 8 hours, which is the outside estimate Asus claims the six-cell battery will last its Eee PC 1000. (With an SSD drive, the Eee PC 901 ran for 5 hours 15 minutes in CNET Labs.)

Lastly, despite Asus rapidly introducing 7-, 9-, and 10-inch Eee PC models, the DigiTimes reports that "the company will also push out software and hardware upgrades every month to fill gaps in the Netbook market."

I have a message in to Asus, asking for comment on this rather vague DigiTimes article.

Via CNET Crave

Axioo announces Pico Netbook

Singapore-based Axioo is joining the Netbook race with its first sub-notebook, the Axioo Pico.

This 10-inch machine bears a striking resemblance to the MSI Wind. Weighing 1.2kg, the Pico comes equipped with three USB ports, memory card reader, VGA output and a built-in Webcam. Wireless radio and Ethernet are available for Internet connection, but Bluetooth is missing in action.

With a 160GB harddisk, its list price of S$699 (US$467.78) may seem to put it on par with the Acer Aspire One. However, the Pico comes pre-installed with Windows XP Home Edition (the Acer has Linux) and a larger screen. The Pico will be available in Singapore and Indonesia from July 31, with Thailand and Vietnam getting theirs in August. There are plans to release the unit to Malaysia and the Philippines, but availability in these markets are not confirmed at this time.

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