Intel has launched its next generation Atom N450 processor for netbooks and the new chip which is smaller than the other Atom chips currently used in Netbooks, will apparently give Netbooks a longer battery life and improved performance.
That’s great news of course but does it have other implications? Some people have been wondering whether the new chip will push the prices of Netbooks up but according to Intel it won’t.
Although it isn’t clear what price Intel have put on the Atom N450 they have said that Netbooks supporting the chip will be available at existing netbook prices. Cool!
PC world reports that Anil Nanduri, director of Netbook marketing said the company has about 80 netbook design wins based on the latest processor so we should be seeing them in Netbooks pretty soon.
Although the new chip will give better quality video viewing and graphics, Nanduri said that the new chip is really designed for content consumption on the internet and not for more graphic intensive videos.
“These are not meant for hooking a Blu-ray player to it” Nanduri said.
Nanduri also explained that Netbooks containing the new Atom N450 chip will be able to run with Windows 7, Windows XP or the open sourced Linux based operating systems.
This is all good news for Netbook lovers. Netbooks continue to be a popular buy for consumers who are looking for a low cost, low processing power, longer battery life device, for accessing the Internet whilst out and about on the move.
According to research firm DisplaySearch, netbook shipments are expected to double by the end of this year compared to shipments last year, which was about 17 million, and this is despite a recession.
So by the looks of things Netbooks aren’t going anywhere just yet.
“People thought this was a recession-oriented business, but we believe… this is a category here to stay” Nanduri said.
Something that could threaten Netbooks, however, is the new class of Ultrathin computers as these offer the portability of a Netbook and the functionality of a laptop but often for not much more than the cost of a netbook which has limited functionality.
You can see Netbooks produced by major vendors which contain the Atom N450 early next month as they will be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from the 7th till the 10th January 2010.
