Computex, one of the world's largest IT hardware shows, officially opened on Tuesday. An estimated 150,000 attendees and exhibitors will stream through the doors of the show between now and the weekend to see the latest computer technology on display from more than 4,000 companies in addition to numerous other sights of the show.
Small-size laptops are the talk of this year's event and on Tuesday Intel's Sean Maloney unveiled a wall-full of mini machines based on its Atom processor.
Among the new machines is the Wind laptop from MSI. The Wind U100 has a 10-inch screen and LED-backlight screen, which saves power and provides a better picture. There's an 80-gig hard drive, Wi-Fi and Windows XP but, unlike many of the small laptops, no option for Linux. Price and availability were not announced.
The most famous mini-laptop to-date, the Asus Eee PC, was launched at Computex last year and this year the company launched new models with larger screens and a longer life battery.
Acer took to the stage to launch it's Aspire One mini laptop. Due out in July the machine will cost between $399 and $499 depending on the specification and is available with either Windows XP or Linux. Acer said it expects to sell up to seven million of the machine this year.
The rush to market of mini-laptops has left Intel with a problem: a shortage of the Atom processors that go into the laptops.
Acer
"They underestimated this so they quickly tried to ramp it up. I believe by Q4 supposedly they should be done but the issues are between now and Q4 so I think every partner working on the Atom platform are talking to them on a weekly basis. So the people from Intel handling Atom supply issues are not the regular people, they are the top people."
For its part Intel said the laptop makers have little to worry about.
Sean MALONEY, Intel
"We will meet the demand, Typically in the early phase of a hot product people get a little worried but we will meet Jerry's demand, we will get there."
It's not just Intel that is being pushed by the rise of the mini-laptop. In a keynote speech Microsoft's Steve Guggenheimer, head of its OEM business, said the company will continue providing Windows XP for low-cost laptops until 2010. The small machines don't carry the right specs for the more powerful but demanding Windows Vista meaning Microsoft needs to keep XP alive or lose more sales to Linux.
In the future Vista is likely to appear in the mini machines, likely in a light form, said Jerry Shen, CEO of Eee PC-maker Asustek.
Jerry SHEN
"Maybe in the near future we can work with Microsoft to support Vista.
I think in the near future they may also support Vista. The same Vista but a light version of Vista. It can boot faster and have simple features."
The machines announced at Computex should start appearing on store shelves worldwide in the second half of the year.
With reporting by Dan Nystedt, Sumner Lemon and James Niccolai, this is Martyn Williams at Computex 2008 in Taipei, IDG News Service.
