Dell Releases Netbook, With a Twist

      by Wyatt Walter

Dell today released a new product into their lines, a netbook known as the Inspiron Mini 9. As the name suggests, the laptop has a 9 inch (well, 8.9) screen and a similar form factor to all other notebooks on the market. Just like the other netbooks, the laptop can be purchased either with Windows XP Home Edition or Ubuntu Linux. It also comes with options such as upgrading the memory, hard drive capacity, adding a bluetooth card and a webcam, nothing special. Dell typically has been a major player in the lower-end consumer PC market so it’s somewhat surprising that this is their first. The laptop seems like it’s just like the rest of the netbooks currently on the market, but there’s a twist with this new PC which is probably the most interesting part of the product. According to a CNET podcast, Dell has also been talking with a wireless partner to offer the netbook as part of a cell phone-type plan so the device comes as part of a wireless contract. The report said the laptop would most likely connect to a 3G wireless network to get to the web. This will definitely be a boost to the netbook market and could leave a few competitors in the dust.

This could be the kick in the pants that cloud computing and SaaS vendors needed. Now we have devices that we can interface with as though they are full-scale desktops and laptops, but can be paid for month-to-month and don’t need to store anything locally since they are always connected to the web. It also gives desktop virtualization new life. If we can just connect to a virtual desktop from a “dummy terminal” like these netbooks, we don’t have to worry about databases walking off when laptops are stolen (which is ridiculous, but that’s another topic for another day). It also allows the PC market to be even more commoditized. Just like a cell phone, if I drop mine or lose it, I can walk down to a store, pick up a new laptop, install a thin client, and away I go.

The laptop also comes with 2GB of online storage from box.net. You can sign up for 1GB of storage for free, so they’re not exactly giving away the farm, but it lets users get a little more comfortable with the idea of cloud computing and storage without spending any money and it’s backed by a name like Dell. With tools like Google Docs and Zoho, we really don’t need word processing and spreadsheet applications on our desktops anymore. With SugarCRM and Salesforce.com we don’t need customer information stored on our desktops and workgroup servers anymore. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.

If this news of wireless service with a Dell netbook included becomes a reality (every one who knows me personally hold on to your chair), I just might have to get myself a Dell. I’m a huge Apple fan and I love the interface, but to have a small laptop without having to be tied to an access point would be great. What’s even better would be if I weren’t necessarily tied to a single device. A good majority of the apps I use are web-based, but a few still run on the desktop. All who know me, you can rest easy.. I’ll get the Ubuntu version. I haven’t completely lost it.

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Filed under News, Tech Trends : Comments (1) : Sep 4th, 2008

One Response to “Dell Releases Netbook, With a Twist”

  1. What a n00b! » Blog Archive » The Evolution of the Notebook Says:
    September 13th, 2008 at 11:56 pm

    [...] or 3G, the computer is well on its way to becoming the new cell phone. In fact, Cnet has mentioned possible deals in the works between Dell and a wireless provider to offer a wireless plan that includes one of the [...]

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