Windows 7 Makes Netbooks Fly

If you want to see how much progress Microsoft has made with Windows 7, try it on a Netbook. I have been testing an ASUS Eee netbook with Windows 7 Beta 1 for the last couple of weeks. The netbook sports an Intel Atom processor and only 1 GB of RAM.

We have seen the netbook PC category explode over the last two years and Microsoft was forced to make a key decision. Give up market share to Linux or lower the price of Windows. With the average price of a netbook selling for around $400 Microsoft made a smart business decision and sold Windows XP at a discount. Microsoft now has over 80% of the netbook running Windows. But Windows Vista would never be a credible alternative on netbooks. It required too much hardware to run optimally and Microsoft was worried about cannibalization.

 In comes Windows 7, when I first booted Windows 7 the first time I could tell something was different. It was snappier and more responsive. Applications loaded fast and even with the minimum hardware requirements the Windows Aero interface was enabled and performed like my desktop running Vista. After using it for a while I can only describe it with one word, solid. There are not any flashy features but several enhancements that you quickly become accustom to. Microsoft has clearly taken a different approach with the design of Windows 7 and it shows running on netbooks. Windows 7 is by far the best Windows beta I have ever seen come out of Redmond. It looks like Microsoft is starting to get its mojo back.

Race For A New Game Machine

Sony’s PlayStation 3 is nothing short of a greek tragedy. There haven been many companies before it suffer similar fates, Magnavox, Atari, and even Nintendo but none have squander their opportunity like Son.  But now David Shippy, the “brains”  behind the cell processor which powers the PlayStation 3 tells the story of how Sony was part of one of the biggest business failures of all time.  

In a new booked called The Race For A New Game Machine, he describes how the project went off the rails, ending up with IBM engineers creating the processing chips for two rival video game consoles. In the process IBM sold parts of the cell processor design to Microsoft for their Xbox 360 and Microsoft benefited from over $400 million in R&D funded by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba. The R&D teams worked in the same building and in some cases Shippy met with Microsoft engineers right after meeting with Sony engineers. Ultimately Microsoft benefited a great deal from Sony’s work on the cell processor. Microsoft launched their Xbox 360 a year before Sony launched their PlayStation 3 and the rest is history.

Flip Video MinoHD Takes HD Video Mainstream

First it was cheap HD TVs, then it was more and more HD channels on TV. Now the YouTube generation gets a device that will take HD video into the mainstream, the Flip Video MinoHD camcorder. This little device claims to be the smallest HD video recorder. The Flip Video MinoHD comes equipted with 4GB, capable of storing 60 minutes of 1,280×720 resolution (720p) video. Thats pretty compelling for a device that only weights 3.3 ounces and is ultraslim. The battery is an integrated lithium ion rechargeable battery which gives you about 2 hours of recording time. One of the obvious things it lacks is a HD output connection. It only includes a standard definition AV output jack.

The Flip Video MinoHD is definitely geared towards the social netowrking crazed genreation. With just one click I can upload my videos to YouTube, MySpace, and AOL. It includes FlipShare software that runs on the MAC and PC. HD recoridng is getting cheaper and cheaper. The Flip Video MinoHD, can be bought for around $200 and is a red hot gift for the holidays.

Netflix Xbox 360 Service Rocks But Needs Some Work

I finally got a chance to play around with the new Xbox Live experience and specifically the new Netflix app. Ever since Microsoft announced the Netflix partnership I was eager to see it in action. I have to say I was really impressed with this new service. But there were a few parts that seemed disconnected. 

The best part of the product is just watching movies. Netflix (NFLX) has standard definition movies and a limited selection of HD movies. I went on a 30 Rock marathon watching the HD version of season 1 and 2. The video quality was very good on a 1080p Samsung LCD. The speed of using the service was also impressive. Movies loaded fast and the navigation was pretty intuitive. But there were some areas that need improvement.   Read more

Wii World

The Wii took the world by storm in November of 2006. It caught everyone by surprise especially Microsoft and Sony. It launched with cheesy comercials that could have been taken as a spoof. But Nintendo did something that no one had accomplished yet in gaming, go mass market. They did this through a little innovation called the Wii Remote/ Nunchuk. This little device made the Wii a must have product that made it go on to sell over 35 million units world wide.

With all the success the Wii has brought Nintendo, they still are not fully realizing the opportuntiy and taking advantege of the mometum. Supply has been one of the Wii’s biggest missed opportunities. The demand has always outpaced supply and even last year you could not find a Wii any for Christmas. Now, two years later instead of the Wii console being the #1 seller on Amazon its not its the Wii Nunchuck controller. The Wii console is sold out again on Amazon. Read more

The Kindle Frenzy

Ever since Jeff Bezos launched the Kindle he has underestimated demand. Back in March he issued an apology to customers because they sold out in less than 5 hours and it was a 6 week wait to get one. Now months later Bezos is still underestimating demand for his wireless reading device. If you go to Amazon.com and try and buy a Kindle you will get a 11-13 week wait time.

The Kindle has become the Wii of Christmas 2008. The Kindle ranks #4 on Amazon’s most popular list. Back in August TechCrunch estimated that Amazon had sold over 240K Kindles. Amazon is certainly well on its way to sell over a 1 million Kindles. The Kindle “frenzy” has alreay taken to eBay and Craigslist where people are trying to get up to $1K for this little device.

Asus Eee PC 1000H

The ASUSTek Asus Eee PC 1000H is a 3.2-pound, ultra light notebook computer, that is in the hot category of “netbooks”. Its very inexpensive coming in around $550 and comes with wireless conectivity built in. The Eee PC is built on the new Intel Atom chip which is optimized for ultra portable devices and allows the Eee PC to get up to 7 hours of battery life.

This emerging category of devices will begin to blur the boundaries of netbooks and laptops. Hardware will continue to become more powerful and more affordable and soon the form factor will really drive the differentiation.

Verizon Wireless Launches RIM BlackBerry Storm

Verizon Wireless (VZ) launched the Blackberry Storm with the first touch interface from Research in Motion (RIMM). In the two years since the iPhone was first announced, virtually every major mobile manufacturer has been racing to touch screen party. Not RIM, the BlackBerry manufacturer has been biding its time, and is only now releasing its first touchscreen.

For the company that created the “crackberry” and popularized the qwerty keyboard creating a touch screen in a sense goes against their DNA. In a time where the Apple (AAPL) iPhone outsold the entire BlackBerry mobile line of devices in the third quarter, I guess RIM is a little scared about the traction Apple seems to be getting.