Cloud computing promises a mobile utopia, but that mobility can be backbreaking if you're lugging around a chunky laptop. The latest generation of netbooks delivers an on-the-go form factor that's hard to leave behind.
OK, it's true: Any desktop PC can access the computing cloud. But what good is a nice, big virtual network if at least some of your endpoints aren't mobile? Mobility is implied when you're accessing synchronized files and applications from multiple locations. And the latest spin on the cloud concept is netbooks, a term coined by Intel -- the same guys who brought us ultramobile PCs, ultramobile devices, mobile Internet devices, subnotebooks, and mini-notes -- to help sell its new Centrino Atom platform. Potato, potahto -- it's just another name for the same ultraportability dream we've been chasing since the Tandy Model 100.
A netbook is usually about the size of that '80s-era Model 100 but has infinitely more functionality. These "cloudbooks" aren't meant to be your only PC -- although I do know someone who spends all day on the Linux-based Eee PC 701 Asus that was introduced late last year and has a 7-inch display and a chiclet keyboard.
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Asus sold 1 million of those, but its new Atom-based Eee 901, 1000, and 1000(H) have 8.9- to 10-inch widescreens, a choice of Windows or Linux, up to 40 GB of solid-state flash storage, and nearly eight hours of battery life. Starting at $599, they still have that chiclet keyboard and weigh 3 pounds or less.
With a very similar Atom- and Linux-based clamshell, Acer's new Aspire One retails for only $379 but doesn't have 8 GB of Flash or the Eee PC's 20 GB of free online storage. It has the same inch-thin Daytimer form factor and Webcam mounted atop its 8.9-inch backlit LED display for vlogging and videoconferences. With about an inch more width, Aspire One has a larger keyboard.
But it's still smaller than the one on HP's 2133 Mini-Note, which is 92% of normal keyboard size. The 10-inch-wide, 2.8-pound magnesium alloy clamshell with an 8.9-inch, 1,280-by-768 LCD feels more upscale than the two plastic chassis. The eight models are priced between $499 and $829, depending on your choice of Linux or Windows XP and hard drive or Flash, as well as battery size. Powered by a VIA processor/chipset, though, it seems like a placeholder for an unannounced Atom-based successor.
Also still to come as of press time are MSI's Wind NB and Everex's CloudBook Max. Starting at $479 with Windows and costing $399 with Linux, the 2.6-pound Wind will be Atom-powered, its marquee feature being a 10-inch, 1,024-by-600 backlit LED. The $599 CloudBook is VIA-powered but squeezes an 8.9-inch display with a 2-megapixel Webcam, Vista or XP, and an 80-GB hard drive into a 2.2-pound clamshell. Besides the usual wireless options, it also will include GPS and wide area broadband over Sprint's WiMax network.
If you can afford a cloudbook Cadillac, you can't get more luxurious than Toshiba's Portégé R500-S5007V -- a proven solution that's been popular with businesspeople for more than a decade. This new 2.4-pound version packs a 12.1-inch transreflective LED display and a DVD SuperMulti drive into a 0.77-inch profile, thanks to the use of 128 GB of Flash instead of a hard drive. Wonderfulness ain't cheap: The Portégé starts at $2,999.
This is just a short list of a form factor whose popularity will come off the road to conquer the office desktop, communications research firm In-Stat predicts. Fujitsu, OQO, Sony, and others have different takes on the theme.
Which will become the cloudbook prototype? That will be determined by your votes -- in other words, your dollars.
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Mike Hogan is Entrepreneur's technology editor.
