14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwanese manufacturer MSI is trying to become an innovator in the field of portable computer systems, as it is expected to be among the first major PC makers to announce a netbook PC that will run on Google's Android operating system. The company will reportedly showcase an Android-based netbook at this year's Computex show held in Taipei, Taiwan, between June 2 and 6. However, it's not yet clear if it also plans to launch such a system in the near future.
According to a recent news-article on Digitimes citing the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, Micro-Star International is planning to showcase a new netbook that will be designed to run on Google's mobile-focused Android platform. According to the report, the company's plan to showcase an Android-based netbook is meant to provide it with a perspective on the popularity of these devices, with MSI aiming to gain orders from global PC vendors.
Despite no specific details on the technical specifications of the aforementioned netbook, the system is said to have been developed with the help of Taiwan's Institute for Information Industry. As expected with most unreleased products, MSI has declined the opportunity to comment on the news. However, the move doesn't come as a surprise, as other system vendors, such as HP, Dell, ASUS and Acer, are also said to be working on computer systems that are capable of taking advantage of Google's Android operating system.
The popularity of the Android could allow system vendors to develop smaller and cheaper Internet-capable devices that provide users with an alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system. However, up until now, Linux-based netbooks have had a hard time competing with Windows-based ones, mainly due to the familiar interface granted by Microsoft's successful operating system. We are yet to see what will be the level of success that netbooks running on Android will benefit from.