[Technology Report]
Laptops, Netbooks, And E-books, Oh My!
Low-power processors and displays along with flash memory dominate the terrain of small-form-factor mobile devices.
You don’t need to wave a magic wand to capitalize on the hordes of mobile devices that are on the market these days. They’ve become bright spots in a wobbly consumer electronics industry as buyers look for new bargains.
In many instances, the cutting edge, such as the iPhone and Kindle, still carries a premium price. But the potential of lower-cost alternatives as well as the functionality provided by these new platforms is driving interest. They’re also opening doors to different markets and opportunities.
What’s really confusing is the range of names attached to today’s devices. For example, are netbooks like the 2.28-lb Dell Mini 9 little laptops (Fig. 1)? Are mini-laptops like Samsung’s thin NC20 with a 12.1-in. screen really netbooks (Fig. 2)? Are ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) dead or just another form of netbook? Are netbooks also e-books? Are e-books only for reading books? Are they all mobile internet devices (MIDs) like the Archos Internet Media Tablets (Fig. 3; see “Archos 7 Mobile Video Player”)? And can any of these gadgets complement, augment, or replace a cell phone, telephone, or Internet phone?
I won’t make any proclamations here. Rather, I’ll try to explain the range of options and technologies being employed. It’s a very exciting time akin to the emergence of the PC because designers and users are trying to use these tools in places they weren’t intended.
The variety of options when it comes to design is significant. Designers can choose flash memory or hard-disk drives, or both. There is a cornucopia of processors to pick from. Even display options are growing, not to mention finger pointing.
FINGER POINTING So what are some of the more intriguing trends as these products hit the market? One is keyboard size. Myriad netbooks, MIDs, and other mobile devices have come out with smaller versions of the standard-size keyboard, though they haven’t been too successful for devices designed to replace a laptop. This is one reason why netbooks are turning into little laptops with at least 10-in. screens and real keyboards to match.
It all has to do with the average size of the adult finger, which affects more than keyboards. It’s equally applicable to touchscreens, as highlighted by the Apple iPhone. One of the challenges faced by UMPC vendors was that a stylus often had to be used to match the small menus presented by PC applications. Functions may have been workable with the stylus, but utterly impractical for any normal size finger.
This is actually a two-part problem: hardware and software. Features such as multitouch where multiple fingers can hit the screen at the same time are addressing the hardware side. The iPhone interface shows how this is an advantage rather than a problem, but it required a significant effort on the software side.
SHAKE, RATTLE, AND ROLL Another key (pun intended) input parameter comes from accelerometers, which are quickly moving from anomalies in implementation to standard fare in mobile devices. Falling prices, improved performance, and more digital implementations like Freescale’s MMA7660FC 3D accelerometer (see “Accelerometers Shake Up The Old Ways To Play”) make alternate input scenarios such as shaking, tapping, or turning a device common (Fig. 4).
Again, the software must exploit this feature. The challenge is coming up with standard frameworks so application developers don’t have to incorporate device-specific code to take advantage of these features.
This isn’t to say that small keyboards or even on-screen keyboards aren’t a viable alternative. Rather, the primary applications for a device must not place heavy requirements on a keyboard. For example, a short response to an e-mail is manageable on a small or onscreen keyboard. Word processing places heavy demands on a keyboard, but not so with editing and annotating. The trick often is not to preserve the keyboard as some tablets or cell phones have. Instead, figure out how to provide alternatives with unique designs.
FOLD, SPINDLE, MUTILATE? Keyboards also have had an effect on alternate form factors. The Always Innovating Touch Pad, an OMAP3530-based netbook, turns into a touchpad by simply separating the keyboard from the display (Fig. 5). For most laptops and netbooks, the processing and storage guts are under the keyboard. Always Innovating ignored conventional wisdom and placed them behind the display.
This change of design does present some interesting implications. For example, the power and peripheral connections such as USB are found on the perimeter of the display. The system is still fully operational with its touchscreen interface.
E-Ink’s displays have made e-books possible, but their flexible nature can also release designers from conventional constraints. Polymer Vision’s Readius rolls the display up into a very compact package that’s about the size of a cell phone instead of a typical e-book or compact tablet (Fig. 6). Its expanding plastic frame holds the display rigid during use.
Unlike LCDs that must be rigid, the E-Ink displays are created in rolls, so it’s not too difficult to imagine even larger rollable displays. Larger displays are already being delivered, like Amazon’s Kindle DX and Sony’s PRS-700. These devices can handle newspaper and textbook presentations, which tend to be a challenge for their smaller-screen predecessors (see “Hot Cellular Market Can’t Escape Icy Economic Winds”).
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