Are netbooks the future of the PC?

by Scott Bicheno on 30 January 2009, 07:00

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), AMD (NYSE:AMD), NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaqur

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Vested interests

A couple of recent interviews with Jen-Hsun Huang, the CEO of graphics company NVIDIA, have been getting a fair bit of attention in the past few days.

One was covered by HEXUS yesterday in which Huang pointed out just how limited he thinks netbooks, in their current form, are. Some choice quotes from the interview include: "The Atom platform is creating an installed base that doesn't run modern applications," and "Atom by itself with Intel integrated graphics would get crushed by the Neo platform."

The Neo platform Huang was referring to is AMD's thin and light notebook platform also referred to as "Yukon" in its first incarnation, which runs on the low power Neo CPU.

In pointing out the failings of netbooks, Huang is essentially echoing what AMD has been saying for a while, especially in the form of VP of advanced marketing Pat Moorhead.

Just as Moorhead's vested interest in highlighting the inadequacies of netbooks was to be able to pronounce Yukon as a favourable alternative, even the least cynical of you surely won't be disillusioned by the revelation of an ulterior motive on Huang's part too.

You see, all the failings identified in current netbooks can be overcome with the inclusion of one simple component. And you'll never guess who makes it.