STILL JUST A REARGUARD ACTION:

High-Tech Companies Take Up Netbooks: Low-Price Laptops Weather Downturn; New Products to Address Flaws, Provide More Features (DON CLARK and JUSTIN SCHECK, 1/06/08, Wall Street Journal)

Netbooks, for example, tend not to be very good at displaying graphics and playing videos. So Hewlett-Packard Co., for example, Tuesday plans to announce a $699 laptop that beefs up those capabilities with chips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. H-P's new dv2 model is less than one inch thick and offers many features found in higher-end products such as Apple Inc.'s MacBook, which starts at $1,800.

Another problem with netbooks, and other laptops, is that they tend to start up too slowly and run out of power too quickly. Phoenix Technologies Ltd. is trying to address those issues with a downloadable layer of software, called HyperSpace, that lets users do simple chores such as calling up Web sites without waiting for an operating system to boot up.

The activity is the latest sign that technology segments are converging at an accelerating rate, driven by competitive pressures that the recession is amplifying. Companies including Phoenix are trying to help netbooks and other portables work as simply as cellphones, just as makers of those pocket-size devices are improving their ability to tap into the Web.

If there's anything that can be said with absolute certainty about these devices it comes courtesy of Occam: we won't be carrying two around when one will suffice.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 6, 2009 10:02 AM