With laptops and MIDs (Mobile Interaction Device) becoming more and more popular in the last few years, there was no doubt they were going to come cheaper and smaller. With many laptop manufacturers already making 12" and smaller notebooks, it was only a matter of time before one of these companies would take the plunge and construct a small PC.
The first notebook to do this was the $100 OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) XO. It was designed to be sold cheaply with each sale in Europe or America contributing to one machine being sold in Africa or South America. The laptop incorporated low power processor and a solid state hard drive along with wi-fi connectivity.
The first netbook on sale to the consumer was the Asus Eee PC. This machine was different to the OLPC as it was intended for the general public, and not for the Sahara Desert or the Amazon Rainforest.The system first used an Intel Celeron Mobile processor, and had a solid state disk drive, meaning that although capacity was low (4GB), that a smaller battery was needed by the machine. To keep costs down, the OS of choice was Linux as it was able to be customerised to the machine, and user interfaces could be created easily.
After the success of Asus' Eee PC, many other manufacturers followed suit, including MSI with their Wind, Samsung with their NC10 and Acer with their Aspire One. Soon Intel launched an improved processor, the Intel Atom, which was designed specifically for the market. Many other configurations soon appeared with some manufacturers using VIA's C7 processor, using bigger solid state disk drives or even conventional hard disk drives, and opting for Windows XP in replacement for Linux. Many of these netbooks became cheap quickly and have now been offered for free as part of deals for HSDPA 3G USB modems.
With nearly all the major manufacturers now releasing netbooks, it is important to realise what market they are aimed at. As their name suggests, netbooks are designed so that they can use the internet wherever they may be. This means that the applications running on them are not client processor intensive, and that they can be used on screen as small as 8.9" with a resolution of 1024 x 600. VSI-thinking are well known for producing Web Applications for blue chip companies such as emc3i and Thomas Cook, and we ensure that the application runs as fluid on a low end laptop as a high end desktop.
A web application can be accessed anywhere as long as you have internet connection, meaning that you don't have to worry about being tied to an office machine with the necessary software. Perhaps more importantly you don't have the additional cost of application software, its maintanace/upgrades and expensive IT training. VSI-thinking host their servers in Canary Wharf, one of the best infrastructure locations in the UK, aiming to ensure that you have business critical level of service.
If you would like any information on VSI-thinking web applications please contact us.