Intel delay major new netbooks until 2010
Thursday, July 30th, 2009Major netbook manufacturers including Acer and Asus will be forced to delay their new netbooks until 2010 after Intel announced that they will be delaying the launch of the next generation of the Atom processor.
A next-generation Atom processor for netbooks – codenamed ‘Pine Trail’ – is expected to launch during Q4 of this year – a timeframe later narrowed down to October, following recently leaked information from an Asia-based mole.
But industry sources have since told Digitimes that Pine Trail-M – Intel’s mobile variant of the CPU – now won’t appear until Q1 of 2010.
The net result is that neither Asustek nor Acer will launch any new netbooks during the second half of 2009, the sources added. Both firms will instead be forced to focus their efforts of ultra-thin notebooks.
Details are still hazy about exactly which netbooks are facing delays, but Intel’s decision could reportedly impact the arrival of an Android notebook from Acer. The launch of a dual-OS notebook – also from Acer – could be impacted, too, the sources added.
So if you were holding off to buy a new netbook model, you may want to re-consider. There are still a number of ‘newish’ netbooks on the market to keep you happy, so we recommend taking the plunge now. One of our current favorites is the Toshiba NB200, which has looks to die for.
