ARM versus the Intel Atom - - Page 2

chunkyks · 10-31-2009, 07:11 PM

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What value does it bring the customer?

Cheaper, and lower energy.

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superior performance, outstanding specs and rave reviews all the way to your grave.

Except ARM has an extremely long & distinguished history, and has been making inroads because their chips are significantly better, in every way, at meeting a specific, currently-burgeoning, trend

I sound like a crazy evangelist, but I think the last couple points is exactly what matters; windows on netbooks blows, and netbooks are becoming more and more popular. I strongly believe that ARM is positioned to take up slack in a market that's expanding *right now*.

I think the other tipping point is finally having a good operating system with a good front end, tailored for the type of requirements and system that ARM fits well with.

Gary (-;

VegasGuy · 10-31-2009, 08:00 PM

Startin' to feel some of that old time religion there....

I think you make some reasonable points, and Android is certainly getting a lot of buzz. I'm not entirely sure I understand the purpose of a netbook (ie where and why it fits in vis a vis laptops, blackberrys, PDAs, cellphones), but again, its a product segment with a lot of buzz.

Currently the product price point is $300-400 and will probably fall from there. I'm not sure that processor cost is what's driving that price (more likely, display costs). Battery life? How much more would you have to get from ARM in order to present a compelling buy decision to the consumer? 20%? 30%? A Samsung N120 with an Atom 1.6 already offers 10.5 hours of use...how much more do you think would be needed?

I think you're probably right. It's VERY likely that somebody will try to bring an ARM-based device to market, possibly sporting Android or some kind of linux derivative. But I seriously doubt anyone will buy it BECAUSE it has an ARM processor, just as nobody's buying the N120 BECAUSE it has an Atom. It's the OS and Apps that drive the sale, and 70-80% of the market will give the Windoze solution the nod, possibly due to "inertia"

VegasGuy

chunkyks · 10-31-2009, 08:08 PM

Yeah, my apologies about the religious wars thing. This is one thing we'll just have to sit out.

To me, the value of a netbook is the fact that it's not a phone so doesn't require a subscription, but it does have a full[-ish] keyboard.

Gary (-;

malcom2073 · 10-31-2009, 09:00 PM

People see netbooks as a more mobile version of a laptop, not as a MID akin to a blackberry or palm device. For that reason I agree with VegasGuy that they'll never take off because of the windows inertia. People buy them to get a tiny laptop, not to get a mobile internet device, so they will of course want all their standard windows laptop programs to run on them.

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