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Article Excerpt
Following the progress in computer technology is always an interesting venture. One IT leader who I interviewed years ago told me that he believed that IT was like a pendulum that swung from user-centered to centralized control in most organizations. Each pendulum swing affected not only the interest or acceptance of new products, but also whether technology was envisioned as fundamentally an organizational asset or as individual productivity tools.
During eras of strong central control, the focus was more on harnessing technology for organizational control and gain. During eras of more user-centered developments, the organization's role became more one of benign neglect and indirect support, with individuals taking control in a laissez-faire environment; acquiring and using what worked best for them. Regardless of which end of the pendulum is currently swinging for you or your organization, today's netbooks are worth a good look.
Computers: Getting Smaller, Smarter--And Sometimes 'Greener'
In the mid-1940s, as part of the war effort, ENIAC--Electronic Numerical Integrator And Calculator--was built at the University of Pennsylvania. The computer was massive: Standing 8' high, 3' deep, 100' long, and weighing 30 tons, ENIAC initiated the world's entry into the computer age. Not built for beauty, the computer operated at speeds 1,000 times faster than previous, electro-mechanical machines. That represented a greater leap in computing power than has happened with all the generations of computers that have followed. Not that ENIAC itself still stands as any ideal: Today's average hand-held calculator offers more computing power than ENIAC ever did. However, the interest aroused by ENIAC in academia and in business and industry signaled the beginning of the computer era.
Thirty years later--with the release of Apple I, the Altair 8800, Tandy's TRS-80, and the Commodore PET--came the beginning of a new revolution which brought computing onto the desks and into the hands of individuals. Then came the IBM PC.
Fast-forward another 30 years: iPods, BlackBerries, ebook readers, cell phones, web-based video, and other devices and services have revolutionized consumer electronics. Every new generation of technology has offered more power and functionality in order to attract users and achieve more market share. Today, a new consumer era seems to be rising--a "Green" revolution that seeks to have fewer gadgets, but ones that better-match needs to specific products as opposed to the bigger and better model of the past 20 years. In an era when "new" doesn't necessarily mean more powerful, the lowly net-book may prove itself the key to future computing.
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Netbooks
The netbook is quickly establishing its presence in the spectrum of useful computer-based products that can meet the need for on-the-go computer access. Netbooks--also sometimes called mini-laptops, umpcs or ultra-mobile PCs, ultra-portables, or subnotebooks--are quickly developing a growing market niche. Netbooks may also signal the most significant change in the past 30 years in the computer industry.
Netbooks are well-designed, reliable, and selling very well, which would appear to ensure a strong position for them in the computer market in the coming years. They also represent another milestone in the continuing process of convergence as technology continues to evolve, delight, and improve our lives.
In most organizations 40-50 years ago, information and software programs resided on mainframes and minis. Individuals used "thin clients"--small/dumb terminals that afforded little innate power or functionality--to connect workers to information and productivity tools. With the development of desktop systems, an era of more freedom arose. People were able to access, use, store, and share files from their own computers, yet still link to other computers throughout the organization. With laptops, workers and organizations gained mobility, as individuals became able to take their work and connectivity with them--to work, at home, or on-the-road.
The genesis of what became the netbook began with the effort to create inexpensive computers for the developing world: one laptop per child. The efforts didn't lead to universal computer access, but the principles used to design a cheap machine, one that could provide the basic, fundamental elements of computing, led to the development of a cheap computer for the broader marketplace.
Taiwan's Asustek was the first company to release a netbook, the Eee PC, in fall 2007. Within a few months its entire inventory of more than 350,000 units had been sold, mostly to people in North America and Western Europe who wanted a lightweight, good-to-go option in computing. DisplaySearch has estimated that netbooks will have nearly triple-digit growth in 2009, accounting for one in five notebooks shipped globally. It is believed that...
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