The first netbook running Google’s Android operating system is expected to be available in the next three months and cost about US$250.
The Chinese netbook uses a 533MHz ARM 11 CPU and sports a 7-inch LCD screen, keyboard, touchpad, and built-in Wi-Fi.
Market research firm Ovum recently predicted that Android-powered netbooks will emerge in 2009, as manufacturers attempt to drive the price of netbooks to around US$200 or less.
Some observers have their doubts. Android as an operating system may be free, but so is Linux, already available as an option on many netbooks but spurned by most consumers, and so far none are being offered at $200.
The great problem is use and understanding.
Making it personal. I bought an Advent 4211 Netbook which is like the MSI Wind only cheaper. It cost me $242. I use it often as my main machine although I sometime plug in a mouse.
The great asset for me is that it is running Windows and all of the programs work the way it has taken me a long time — I think years but I could be exagerrating — to learn. Do I think Android is a good thing? Probably. It is free. But so is Linux and they are not selling in any great quantities.
Android has to have an Unique Selling Proposition which will be big enough to sweep me past my Microsoft learning experience.
It can be done.
Apple did it with iPhone and iPod Touch both of which I intend to marry as soon as the divorce from Nokia comes through.
I simply do not believe from what I have seen that Android can hack it. I seriously hope I am totally wrong.
