14 DAY TRIAL // Four of the world's leading vendors of small, low-power netbook systems, ASUSTek, Acer, Lenovo and Micro-Star International (MSI), are expected to launch a new line of netbooks, featuring Intel's next-generation Atom N450 processor, which is based on the Pineview core. According to the most recent details, that have surfaced on the Internet, these companies plan to launch the new netbooks on January 11, next year, just after the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In a recent news-report on Digitimes, the aforementioned system vendors are said to be planning the release of their next-generation netbooks, featuring Intel's much-anticipated Pine Trail platform. The decision to launch the new netbooks early next year is reportedly related to an agreement with Intel, which wants new products to be launched only after January 10. However, at this time, these are only rumors and we might see some vendors bringing their new netbooks at the upcoming CES show, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The new Atom N450-based netbooks that are expected to launch early next year, will be available in three different versions, depending on the OS the vendor will integrate. New systems will be available with either a Windows 7 Starter edition, Windows XP Home or the Linux-based Moblin OS, with the Windows 7-based models expected to be a bit more expensive, than others. Vendors are also expecting the much-anticipated Chrome OS launch, from Google, which should put more pressure on Microsoft to provide them with more flexible prices.
Following the official introduction of the N450 processor and the new netbooks from ASUS, Acer, Lenovo and MSI, other, smaller PC vendors, such as Clevo and China-based Malata are also expected to introduce their own designs. In addition, Intel will announce the N470 CPU, later in March, 2010, which will be an upgrade from the N450 and could spawn new designs as well.