Intel Says Nettops Will Gain Popularity in Developing Countries

Although not on par with as notebooks, netbooks actually saw an explosion of popularity this year thanks to their high degree of mobility and even satisfactory performance capabilities which allow for media playback and unhindered Internet access. With ultra-portability and on-the-go Internet access, these products managed to score quite well on today's well-developed IT market. Such is, however, not the case for the ultra-low-end desktop PCs, known as nettops. These systems, although very cheap, have not really seen widespread adoption, with most end-users preferring either a customizable (and, for that matter, upgradeable) full-form factor desktop PC, or a notebook which, although pricier, is actually capable of packing performance on par with that of high-end desktops.

Even if nettops are currently lagging behind all other IT products (despite having been around for over a decade), Intel believes that there is actually a very practical use for such systems, namely in developing countries which do not yet have established nation-wide networks, especially in the fields of education.

“Entry level desktop PCs or nettops or whatever you want to call them, while not as popular as netbooks, nor as widespread. […] There is also a new crop of small form-factor desktop machines, All-in-Ones based on the next-generation Atom platform that I think are going to be very compelling for people who just want entry-level desktop performance, with slightly more capability than a standard netbook (light multi-tasking, etc),” explained Bill Calder, a spokesman for Intel in an interview with X-bit labs.

“Technically, low-cost PCs have been around for at least 10 years or more, why we did Celeron in the first place, and the category is going to continue to evolve with Atom fueling a new crop of innovative small designs. Of course, Celeron is better performer, but keep in mind one of the other benefits of Atom is low power, very very small die and small package, our smallest chip we make, which enables some very cool small form-factor and fanless designs,” noted Mr. Calder.

Besides their restricted performance, the lack of popularity of nettops is also partly owed to the lack of distribution channels. Unlike nettops, Netbooks, for instance, can be sold as subsidies by cellphone networks. Intel's spokesperson may be right about nettops being just right for people who “ just want entry-level desktop performance,” but the problem is that nobody really knows if there are even enough such people for mass production of nettops to make sense. Intel seems to think that nettops, such as those powered by chipsets like NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M, will go very well with growing countries' educational systems, among others.

“India already has a province in which children learn and do homework on these devices. And this is only the beginning,” said Irina Shekhovtsova, a spokeswoman for NVIDIA Corp. in the same interview.