14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwanese manufacturer Micro Star International is expected to ship 4.5 million notebooks this year, half of which will be accounted by the company's newly launched X-Slim series of ultra-portable PCs. The newly reported figure is 50% higher than that of 3 million notebook units reported back in 2008. The revision is likely due to the company's foray into the market for ultra-portable computer systems that can deliver an enhanced performance, when compared to all those Atom-powered netbooks that have taken the PC market by storm.
According to a recent news-article on Digitimes, citing a report of the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, MSI could ship 4.5 million portable computer systems in 2009. Even more interesting is that half of these shipments will be accounted by the company's recently introduced X-Slim series of portable PCs. These are among the first computer systems to take advantage of Intel's new CULV mobile platform, which has enabled MSI to create a design that is extremely light and ultra-portable, making the X-Slim laptops potential competitors for Apple's MacBook Air.
Showcased several times since the year debut, the X-Slim laptops are specifically designed to provide users with an alternative computing solution to the fast-growing market of netbooks and nettops. Currently available are the X320 and the X340, both of which are designed on an Intel platform and sporting a 13-inch display. The difference between the two is that the former is powered by an Atom N530 1.6GHz processor, while the latter is powered by the latest Core 2 Solo processor.
CULV-based laptops are expected to gradually replace netbooks as the market favorite form factor. That's because these system can provide users with the same portability factor, but with an increased performance. Unfortunately, the cost of these ultraportables is considerably higher than that of netbooks.