NW’s Cool Tools Editor Keith Shaw got his hands on a trio of the new mini-notebooks now starting to emerge. You can go to his video in our video section or click on the viewer here.
The number of these devices, sort of the “subcompacts” of the PC world, is steadily growing. You can compare two reviews of HP’s 2133 device, from our sister publications, PC World and Computerworld. To me, what seems a related development is the push by some vendors for “mobile Internet devices” (MIDs) based on processors like Intel’s new Atom or Via Technologies’ Nano. The mini-notebook category seems unproven and the MIDs undefined. It seems like vendors are feeling their toward, if not floundering, trying to figure out what a homerun mobile product will look like. Do users want or need a keyboard? What size display is optimal for this size and weight of device? What do users actually want to do with mobile acces to the Internet. On cellular networks, users still mainly want their handset to make voice calls, or possibly also text messaging. The iPhone seems to have been the first to really make Internet data and multimedia viable largely with its onboard Safari Web browser. And it famously lacks a physical keyboard or any ability to add one. I’m curious whether enterprise users see a role for these new mobile products?
