Thursday, June 4, 2009
Microsoft to use a new term for netbook
Microsoft plans to redefine mini-notebooks that Intel has categorized as netbooks with a new term – low cost small notebook PC, according to Steven Guggenheimer, corporate vice president, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Division, Microsoft.
Guggenheimer pointed out on June 2 in Taipei during Computex 2009 that since some of the mini-notebooks already feature capabilities more than just purely Internet browsing – which is the main purpose of the netbook – therefore the term netbook should be abandoned.
Some market watchers speculated that the renaming strategy will help Microsoft separate the mini-notebooks with regular notebook capabilities from netbooks, so that it can reduce the number of its low-end Windows shipments.
The new definition will require mid-range to high-end mini-notebooks, which may fall into the netbook category because of their size, to adopt higher-end versions of Windows 7, added the market watchers.
Microsoft declined to comment on the speculation, saying Guggenheimer would provide more details of the strategy while delivering a keynote speech at the company's Computex forum on June 3.
Microsoft has recently decided to lift the restriction on Windows 7 Starter Edition being able to run only three concurrent applications on a PC at a time, and it has also decided to
Source
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090602PD221.html