The Notebook Revolution

From Intel's delivery of a new whitebook platform for system builders to the milestone of 10 to 12 hours of battery life delivered by Dell Inc. via its new Latitude E4200 systems, the CRN Test Center has been tracking the key trends that will impact the way IT solutions are delivered during the next two years:

• Notebook vendors have pushed the throttle on battery life, with four hours or more now routine even with systems running multimedia. Some vendors, including Dell, are hitting double-digit hours of battery life on a single charge.

• Lenovo, which has been pushing the envelope throughout 2008 with form factors and performance in notebooks, delivered the ThinkPad X301 just in time to take advantage of the launch of the first formal WiMAX network in Baltimore. Early indications are that this will be a powerful form of connectivity as the buildout of WiMAX continues, and Lenovo's X301 is poised for leadership in that segment.

• Fujitsu has pushed design limits with its first two-display unit with the LifeBook N7010, a notebook that the Test Center found could set off significant competition among vendors when it comes to user-friendliness and touch-screen capability.

• Seneca Data's delivery of the NexLink Carbon notebook, among the industry's first based on Intel's Rich Creek 2 platform, could provide the beginning of a strong challenge by system builders and the channel to grab share away from tier-one OEMs.

• The world's market-share leader, Hewlett-Packard Co., continues to deliver solid, stable, pleasing technology even with a more conservative approach to delivering new features or flashiness.

These products, and the underlying technologies on which they're built, have convinced the Test Center that significant market disruption in use patterns, pricing and new product cycles will create both opportunities and pitfalls for solution providers.

For example, there may come increasing temptation to "upsell" customers on notebooks with wireless broadband functionality—a connectivity option that could add between $40 and $60 per month to a customer's cost. But anecdotal evidence from repeated conversations with vendors over the past two years indicates that only about as many as 20 percent of all notebooks that ship with WLAN cards ever see those cards activated into full wireless broadband accounts with providers like AT&T, Sprint or Verizon. At least one tier-one vendor we've spoken to has told us the numbers are so low the vendor is considering eliminating the option from its notebook offerings.

But notebooks also provide a reminder that Moore's Law is alive and well and living remotely in front of tens of millions of PC users worldwide; notebooks this year have provided clear evidence that the performance and price curves continue to give the market an increasing bang for the buck. So as the market begins to see an increasing number of so-called netbooks, including many based on Intel's smaller, lower-end Atom processor, VARs will be challenged to keep their customers cognizant that netbooks aren't notebooks; their functionality is limited and multitasking—unlike with notebook PCs—is severely limited.

What we've found in the following strong sampling of notebooks is that the value curve continues on a strong trajectory. It's strongly evidenced by the features, performance, design and other traits we've examined in these notebooks.

Lenovo, with its X301, is moving in yet another direction. The Raleigh, N.C.-based PC maker is among the first companies to jump into the WiMAX space, providing the X301 as the initial gateway in its product line to fourth-generation connectivity.

And while those manufacturers have been pushing the envelope with new features, functionality and form factors, the worldwide market-share leader, Hewlett-Packard, has been maintaining its position with not much new in its line card—but by doing everything it had been doing better.

In this month's CRNtech, we're looking at notebooks and what they're doing differently, uniquely and, importantly, how they're delivering new technology value. Each manufacturer reviewed here brings a unique offering to the table that, in turn, could alter use models and change the way channel customers get things done.

Next: The Lenovo ThinkPad X301