Lenovo Jumps Into Netbooks, But Where's Linux?

by Sam Dean - Aug. 04, 2008Comments (8)

Lenovo is jumping into the sub-notebook "netbook" fray with its new IdeaPad S10, to be priced at $399  The diminutive S10 systems are one-inch thick and weigh just over two pounds. Without a doubt, this move comes in reaction to the pronounced success that Asus is having with its Eee PCs, and other small, inexpensive portable machines. At least in the U.S., though, it looks like Lenovo is not pursuing a Linux-centric strategy. Will it eventually do so?

Lenovo is offering the IdeaPad S10 in two configurations, with one having 512MB of memory and an 80GB hard drive and the second configuration having 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive. They feature Intel's Atom processors, and come in white, black and red.

It's hard to understand, though, why Lenovo is choosing to go with Windows XP on these machines. The Asus Eee PCs have gotten much praise for shipping with Linux and a whole host of open source software applications. Some reports claim that Lenovo will offer a Linux version for non-U.S.-markets, but why not in the U.S.?

In my opinion, the prices on these small, inexpensive notebooks are headed down, and Asus still looks like it offers the best software setup for any of these systems in the $400 range. Look for Lenovo to go with Linux and open source as it starts to wake up to the fierce pricing competition in this space. 

 


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8 Comments
 

Looks great! I'd imagine they can drop the price another $50-75 if they went with Linux - doesn't make sense why they wouldn't offer that as an option...

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Macbook anyone? Can't think of a more blatant rip-off!

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Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, the major OEM licensing on XP is somewhere in the range of a couple bucks per machine. So it's actually in the interest of their profits to charge for XP. Of course, if they make a Linux for these things for other markets, they've got to release the source anyway, which will be when I dive in :D

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@uagent: that's interesting to know. If XP is only a couple of $ per machine why is it that there is so much difference in price between XP laptops and Linux laptops with an almost exact hardware configuration. Typically on the Lenovo site, there is a $100-$200 difference in price between a Linux Laptop and a comparable XP laptop. This would mean the margins on XP laptops are significantly higher, making it difficult to justify marketing the linux variety (esp. since the demand is a lot lower) and the profitability is much higher on the XP laptops

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I'm pretty sure the OEM price for XP is more than a couple of bucks, hence the difference in price for a XP and linux laptop.

As far as I can see Lenovo has done a great job with this machine, I think it's a niche which has a big future.

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I have to agree with your post, but Asus Eee PC 90 is my pick for best overall netbook. Prices are falling faster than gas prices, that's for sure. Shopping? Check out http://www.NetbookComputers.com for cheap netbooks.

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I have to agree with your post, but Asus Eee PC 90 is my pick for best overall netbook. Prices are falling faster than gas prices, that's for sure. Shopping? Check out http://www.NetbookComputers.com for cheap netbooks.

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Lenovo Laptop price is not high. you can see the latest market price from

http://technologybangladesh.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=sectio...


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