



This summer seems to be shaping up as a key time for ultraportables with new powerful and power-optimized processors coming to market, the highest-profile of which is Intel's Atom. However, the first real consumer test for these products will be this fall, when the key target market of students see them as a price-competitive alternative to the 15-inch budget notebook.



Compared to the Eee, HP's Mini-Note is positioned much more closely to a traditional PC with a $599 starting point for a version with Windows and a 120 GB hard drive. HP offers a version with Linux for $100 less, but even somewhat tailored standard desktop Linux operating systems can't match Windows for ease of use or application support. In a $500 device, Linux has a hard time competing powering a consumer PC.



At less than $300, though, the 2GB version of the Eee becomes more interesting as a mobile productivity appliance. ASUS created a friendly, tabbed interface with big watery icons for the Eee, but launching applications takes consumers into mostly off-the-shelf Linux applications, some of which struggle on the device's original 7-inch screen -- key to its low cost. Any illusion of a unified design dissolves quickly. Some obvious tasks, like simply changing the taskbar clock to display 12-hour instead of 24-hour time, can't be done with default graphical controls.



To maximize this opportunity, manufacturers should take a page from leading-edge specialized Linux devices and create an integrated and engaging platform optimized for this form factor. Of course, internet appliances have a miserable history, but times have changed. These products are now aimed at savvy, mobile, tech-savvy consumers, not the grandparents keeping MSN TV alive. Initiatives such as Adobe AIR and Google Gears are laying the groundwork for online lifestyle applications to invade the desktop. A patchwork national WiFi infrastructure courtesy of Starbucks is a forerunner of WiMAX and LTE networks. And even the 7-inch Eee has shown the aptitude of Firefox under Linux for average consumers.



It is no coincidence that, mirroring Microsoft's product gap between Windows Mobile and Windows Vista, the historically hazy and suddenly hot device space between the cellphone and the notebook is emerging as the best shot yet for the Linux desktop.

