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Everex's 7" CloudBook  (Source: Everex)
Everex to join ASUS with larger screens on its CloudBook sub-notebook

A little over a week ago, DailyTech first brought you the news that Everex is taking aim directly at ASUS' popular Eee PC sub-notebook with its VIA C7M-powered CloudBook.

The CloudBook mirrors the Eee PC in size, weight, and screen size; but it manages to incorporate a much larger 30GB HDD, DVI output and longer battery life. Best of all, the CloudBook will retail for $399 when it arrives at Walmart.com and Newegg.com later this month.

Despite the fact that the first generation CloudBook hasn't even hit store shelves yet, Everex is already discussing plans for its successor. The second generation CloudBook, which has a tentative June release date, will incorporate a 9" screen. The 9" screen should boost the CloudBook's screen resolution from 800x480 on the current 7" model to 1024x600.

Pricing for the 9" CloudBook is expected to come in "under the $500 mark" which roughly translates to $499 in marketing speak.

ASUS is also looking to add larger screens with its second generation Eee PCs. ASUS recently confirmed that the next iteration of its Eee PC will be available with 7”, 8” and 8.9” displays.

Not surprisingly, some analysts are dismissing the rise of such cheap, ultra-portable machines from ASUS and Everex. Despite the relatively low price tags, Stephen Baker, an analyst for NPD Group, says that Apple's MacBook Air has more appeal than either the Eee PC or CloudBook.

"Even if [the Eee or CloudBook] go to the 9-in. screen, they're probably still going to be handicapped by Linux, which is not something you should give to a mainstream consumer," said Baker. “I can get a pretty decent [$500] notebook with a 15-in. screen that will do anything that I want it to do. ... The Eee and CloudBook are destined to be niche-y products."

Baker’s rather obvious comment that a 15” notebook can be had for the same price as a 9” Eee PC or CloudBook misses the mark, however. A 15” notebook is not as portable as a 7” or even a 9” sub-notebook.  Consumers were willing to a pay a higher price for smaller notebooks in the past. This time around, however, the price premium for a smaller, fully-functional device is much lower.

"Honestly, some people will find the CloudBook a little too small," countered Paul Kim, Everex's director of marketing. "But we're not trying to be all things to all people."

Interest in the affordable, easy to use sub-notebook category is booming thanks to the Eee PC. ASUS' early 2008 sales projections for the Eee PC were 3.8 million units. ASUS has since revised that figure to 5 million units for 2008.

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Ok, this guy is obviously an idiot.
By Goty on 1/17/2008 11:52:38 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
"Even if [the Eee or CloudBook] go to the 9-in. screen, they're probably still going to be handicapped by Linux, which is not something you should give to a mainstream consumer,"...


Mainstream consumers aren't handicapped by Linux, Linux is handicapped by the computer illiterate masses.




By clovell on 1/17/2008 12:01:39 PM , Rating: 4
That made me think of

Chuck Norris doesn't get hit by a car; a car gets hit by Chuck Norris.


By Warren21 on 1/17/2008 12:05:51 PM , Rating: 2
To-mAY-to, to-mAH-to.


RE: Ok, this guy is obviously an idiot.
By amanojaku on 1/17/2008 3:58:10 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
Mainstream consumers aren't handicapped by Linux, Linux is handicapped by the computer illiterate masses.


I'm not computer illiterate, having been an admin for over 10 years, first on UNIX, then Windows, and more recently Linux. At home I wouldn't touch Linux with a 10 foot pole because there's so much work involved in getting it to function, never mind making changes to the system. Yes, things are getting simpler, but not to the level of Windows, or even the Mac OS.

Not that I like Windows (Oh God! I hate Windows) but it suits the every day user's needs. And who wants to learn a complex OS when life has enough complexity? People even think that learning Windows is too much effort. A computer should look like a basic calculator, not look like Dirac's coup. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirac_equation#Dirac....


By Talcite on 1/20/2008 7:56:29 PM , Rating: 2
Try Ubuntu if you think there's too much work. Granted Gentoo systems would take a while to implement, but if you just want it to work, use Ubuntu. It sets up faster than XP does, and don't tell me otherwise. I JUST set up 2 systems, 1 with XP, one with Ubuntu. There's no driver installation required in Ubuntu, and most apps are already installed. You can go to the repos for the others.


By Pirks on 1/17/2008 7:21:28 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
Mainstream consumers aren't handicapped by Linux, Linux is handicapped by the computer illiterate masses.
Funniest piece of BS I heard today. So there are two Unices, Linux and Mac OS. One is handicapped by illiterate masses while the other IS DESIGNED FOR illiterate masses. Guess who wins? Linux is dead for the masses. If Mac OS X haven't appeared in current Unix for Linux may have had a chance to become a mass OS. Not anymore - Jobs is choking it, and does it much much better than Ballmer ever could. Just look at all those laptops Unix people use these days. Familiar logo on top, isn't it?

You just made my day, Goty. Thanks.


By Ringold on 1/17/2008 8:18:44 PM , Rating: 3
quote:
Mainstream consumers aren't handicapped by Linux, Linux is handicapped by the computer illiterate masses.


Sour grapes?

And some people wonder why linux/OSS gets conflated with "communism" in the minds of other people.

Here's an unfortunate fact of life. Products fail or succeed not because an elite tech aristocracy (which is what you just sounded like) wishes it to succeed, it succeeds because it fills the desires of the market/masses. Even if its not sold for money, linux is indeed a product in a market. Linux just fails in current forms. Mac wins, Windows wins.

Even Marx would agree whole heartedly.


All else being equal
By clovell on 1/17/2008 11:37:00 AM , Rating: 4
Mr. Baker makes a pretty naive comparison. I'm sure an Aston Martin also has more appeal than a Chevy (sorry, FIT, I had to). UMPCs have always been a niche market. Costs have historically kept them from people who who don't prioritize size and weight at the top of their list of things they want in a PC. The EEE PC and the CloudBook are rewriting those long-standing rules.

Now, I'm sure the MacBook Air is a fine machine - it does what Apple does best - take an existing design and make it better. It also costs $1800 for the base model. Now, if the OS is the only hit that Mr. Baker can muster, I would expect any consumer with sense about cents would rather buy an OEM - or heck, even retail version - of XP for $100 to $200 and install it on their EEE PC or CloudBook before they'd drop another $1k on a MacBook Air.

The EEE PC and CloudBook aren't meant to compete with the MacBook Air, and vice versa. The MacBook Air is on a fairly even playing field with the rest of the well-established UMPC market. The EEE PC and the Cloudbook may have a niche market, but they've got it all to themselves.... until Apple does it what it does best ;)




RE: All else being equal
By masher2 (blog) on 1/17/2008 2:23:19 PM , Rating: 2
All true, but I think you're missing a little of the picture. I was considering the larger-screen Eee for those times when I don't want to lug around my full-size. But after seeing the Mac Air, I think I'll just make sure my next "fullsize" goes on the slimline diet.

Among people without any laptop at all, the Eee/Cloudbook are indeed in their wholly own market segment. Among those considering it as a second laptop, I think there will be at least a small measure of overlap.


RE: All else being equal
By Ryanman on 1/17/2008 3:34:23 PM , Rating: 2
I DO agree with you there. I think for those who already have machines, the draw is smaller. Maybe just a spare laptop to use on the wi-fi network for writing/emailing etc. in bed or something. In my opinion, the thinness of the mac air isn't what would appeal to the EEPC market... the smaller screens mean that these laptops can actually be carried in more places throughtout a house or something.


RE: All else being equal
By Oregonian2 on 1/18/2008 5:15:41 PM , Rating: 2
The EEE is MUCH cheaper than Apple's product, it's also lighter. It also doesn't have to be sent in to have its battery replaced.


RE: All else being equal
By honeg on 1/17/2008 7:00:59 PM , Rating: 2
> I'm sure an Aston Martin also has more appeal than a Chevy

I like this analogy a lot, but lets make it a Jeep Wrangler instead, and see where it leads...

Aston: bigger, faster, more beautiful, more comfortable, more modern

Jeep: smaller, slower, ugly as sin, more capacious, more modifiable

You can still get wherever you want to go in either, but the Aston is going to make it a more enjoyable trip - it'll be faster, smoother, and you'll have a lot more toys to play with on the way there. On the other hand, you can take the difference in price and live large when you get there if you buy the Jeep. Or buy another Jeep as backup. Or 4.

You wouldn't think twice about going off-roading in the Jeep, so you'll go everywhere in it. The Aston is just too big to go some places, so you won't take it, or won't go.

The Aston can be souped up, but it'll be a custom job, and cost a fortune. Any mechanic on the planet can soup up the Jeep, but the limits on what you can achieve are lower.


analyst??
By DeepBlue1975 on 1/17/2008 12:28:06 PM , Rating: 3
This baking guy is an analyst of what??
Of technology, surely not. That kind of comparison between a 13" $1300+ notebook like a mac air with something which is one third in size, one half the weight and less than one half the price can only be forgiven to a computer illiterate.

If at least he would have compared the macbook with a Sony UX UMPC which are roughly in the same price league (and yet in that case the comparison wouldn't be fair anyway!!)

Let this silly guy travel around with the heft and size of a 15" laptop while I can gladly travel buy bus while watching tv series chapters on an EEE or playing old MAME / Scummvm games on it.

Well, by now I'm doing those things on a PDA that has costed me more than what the EEE does but will be replaced by an EEE as soon as they get the bigger screen.




RE: analyst??
By psychobriggsy on 1/17/2008 12:42:06 PM , Rating: 2
is one third in size, one half the weight

The volume of the MacBook Air is said to be less than the volume of the EeePC, despite the larger area, because it is so thin. Being so much more densely packed makes it weigh 50% more.

Lots of room for the EeePC to improve in terms of making the product slimmer, in my opinion.


MacBook Air niche-y?
By CU on 1/17/2008 12:51:51 PM , Rating: 2
"Even if [the Eee or CloudBook] go to the 9-in. screen, they're probably still going to be handicapped by Linux, which is not something you should give to a mainstream consumer," said Baker. “I can get a pretty decent [$500] notebook with a 15-in. screen that will do anything that I want it to do. ... The Eee and CloudBook are destined to be niche-y products."

Wonder if he thinks the MacBook Air will be a niche-y product because he can buy a $500 notebook with a 15in. screen? After all it will probably do more than the MacBook Air.




RE: MacBook Air niche-y?
By JoshuaBuss on 1/17/2008 1:46:27 PM , Rating: 2
this is exactly what I'm thinking.

Givn that the EEE pc ALREADY has at least one competitor, I'd say that it's probably the choice that's already got some kind of a 'market' already established... the macbook air is more nichey than anything remotely related to it.. it's not as small in the dimensions that matter as some of its competitors and it's a lot heavier and even more expensive.. yet it still manages to miss some key aspects such as the replaceable battery and ethernet port! hah


RE: MacBook Air niche-y?
By XPguy on 1/17/08, Rating: -1
RE: MacBook Air niche-y?
By Pirks on 1/17/2008 7:43:07 PM , Rating: 1
It's not bad you moron, it's just slim and portable, and does not run some heavyweight PC games well. For people who want small and quiet computers, and who don't play those heavy PC games a lot this hardware is very good. And there are a lot of such people in the US judging how Mac sales numbers grow quarter to quarter.


WTF
By malatory on 1/17/2008 3:37:21 PM , Rating: 2
"Even if [the Eee or CloudBook] go to the 9-in. screen, they're probably still going to be handicapped by Linux, which is not something you should give to a mainstream consumer,"

what, why not?? isn't Mac os built on a unix type kernel.

and I feel the 399 vs 1300 debate is also proof he should be out of a job.




RE: WTF
By Pirks on 1/17/2008 7:45:04 PM , Rating: 2
"unix type kernel" doesn't matter, it's the user interface/experience that matters


Time will tell?
By eye smite on 1/17/2008 11:09:23 AM , Rating: 2
If it's affordable and easy to use/learn, people will buy it and tell their friends and family. Word of mouth will do the rest and it may prove an interesting market that may not stay a niche for long.




there's a market
By mforce on 1/17/2008 11:30:38 AM , Rating: 2
Some people just love to complain that these things are just too small , you can have a 15'' laptop for the same price , it runs Linux. This is all true of course but Asus proved there's a market for these things. After all computer firms even managed to sell some UMPCs and those cost way more than these. It seems low price , small size & weigh and a rugged even though you might say limited OS do the trick and it's what some people want.

I myself would like one of these for when I'm away from home. I however have no need for a full size laptop, I don't intend to do any real work on it. For some light internet access , some multimedia and some editing this thing will work just fine. Sure , if you need more buy a full size laptop with all it's weight and size inconvenient.

We don't all need , want the same things after all. Comparing this to an 1800 $ Apple notebook is just ridiculously funny. It's like comparing a small 10,000 $ small city car to a 50,000 $ sports car and saying the sports car is better , who in the world would want the city car. You know who ? Some people , maybe you neighbor or your mom even :).




By psychobriggsy on 1/17/2008 12:34:58 PM , Rating: 2
I don't even think that the MacBook Air and EeePC / Cloudbook are competing in the same space.

And neither are competing with 15" laptops - the Air a bit moreso however.

The Air does sweet FA good to you because of its large area in space cramped areas - trains (maybe not an issue in the US, but in Europe...) and planes. Here a 9" EeePC or Cloudbook would be ideal.

And all are better than the cheap-ass 15" 6lb laptop alternative when it comes to air travel, given the ridiculous weight allowances. 3-4lbs is a couple of days more clothes you can pack. Indeed for some people who travel a lot the Air would save them as much in extra handluggage fees as it costs more originally over the lifespan of the product.

However the EeePC and Cloudbook (if designed to look a bit more swish, c'mon, you can do it!) win for train and plane for me. They're cheap enough to use at these times only and not feel hard done by, they're rugged too, they're light enough and small enough to put away in a standard bag.

That's why the market exists. It's why Apple have partially missed the subnotebook concept with the Air. And the price is what makes them worthwhile. $1800 is a lot for occasional use. $500 is a lot too, but comparatively ...




Update more than just the screens
By rhangman on 1/17/2008 10:33:27 PM , Rating: 2
Asus could move to a Celeron 220 when they update. If you can buy an entire mini-ITX board+chip for ~$70 then the chips can't be worth much. Would bring the CPU power closer to Apple's custom chip and maybe allow for a thinner less power consuming setup.

Since the Cloudbook is based on a Via reference design, I guess they won't be changing it too much other than the screen. Could be some time before Via's new CPU comes out too, so no real update path there.




Nice, but..
By porkpie on 1/17/08, Rating: -1
RE: Nice, but..
By bighairycamel on 1/17/2008 11:29:48 AM , Rating: 2
Apples ands oranges. The mac air is what, like 13" and $1800? The market for the two are completely different.


RE: Nice, but..
By porkpie on 1/17/2008 1:24:59 PM , Rating: 1
I know the Mac is much more, and its supposed to be larger. The point is these so-called subnotebooks are about twice as thick as the Mac Air

Maybe its not a fair comparison, but I just can't get excited about a "sub" thats so much bigger than a fullsize, at least in one dimension.


RE: Nice, but..
By Brandon Hill (blog) on 1/17/2008 1:40:47 PM , Rating: 3
You're right, it's NOT a fair comparison.

$399 vs $1,800

That's all you need to know as to why these "sub-notebooks" are thicker than the MacBook Air.

I find it amusing that Apple releases a notebook that has no removable battery, non-upgradeable memory/hard drive, no Ethernet port, one USB port, a mono speaker and proclaim how "thin" it is compared to other products on the market that have those features.

Of course it's thin... it purged itself of everything that many notebook users take for granted.


RE: Nice, but..
By masher2 (blog) on 1/17/2008 2:18:19 PM , Rating: 1
Posit: A large number of the anticipated audience for this machine will already own a fullsize, more expensive laptop....and will continue to buy such machines in the future.

Posit: Among that audience, the primary buying motivation is the size of this machine, contrasted with the size of their current full-time laptop.

Posit: That audience will judge this device not in isolation, but as an adjunct to their existing laptop. Therefore, the price isn't "$399 vs. $1800", but rather "do I buy this AND a full size...or just spring for the Mac Air, which is more than small enough to carry everywhere, and more convenient than managing two units".

Quite obviously, this doesn't apply to everyone, but I think its safe to say the Mac Air -- and similar ultraslims not yet released-- will cannabalize the market somewhat.


RE: Nice, but..
By Ryanman on 1/17/2008 3:14:27 PM , Rating: 2
I don't understand. You DON'T have to buy a full size with the EEPC. you DO have to buy, at least, a USB hub and an external optical drive and a USB speaker set for the air book. Sure linux is going to be a problem, but once again it's two different markets. Apples are aimed at people who do not know how to use PC's. I don't think the size of the unit is a problem at all because anyone playing 400 for a notebook doesn't have priorities in either of those aspects. Rather, the ultra-low priced notebooks are borderline disposable computers, that have a significant degree of portability. Just because it's as thick as a normal notebook doesn't mean it's impossible to carry around.


RE: Nice, but..
By honeg on 1/17/2008 6:34:26 PM , Rating: 2
> You DON'T have to buy a full size with the EEPC. you DO have to buy, at least, a USB hub and an external optical drive and a USB speaker set for the air book.

I rarely use more than one of the USB ports on my MacBook Pro. I almost never use the SuperDrive. And if I'm listening to music, I use headphones. So, I don't have to buy any of those things.

> Apples are aimed at people who do not know how to use PC's.

Tell that to all the SysAdmins, Developers, Designers, and Media-freaks who use them as their primary machine. You might be surprised at the answer you get. From a developers point of view, if you're working in a *nix environment, OSX is actually a pretty damn good place to be. I spent a *lot* of time getting Linux to work on laptops, but am happy to have a stable, fully-featured laptop from Apple that (mostly) JFWs.


RE: Nice, but..
By nayy on 1/17/2008 11:36:34 AM , Rating: 2
Mac Air is 50% heavier than both the Eee and the Clouldbook and has an entry price 6x that of the first and 4.5x that of the second.


RE: Nice, but..
By mmntech on 1/17/2008 2:24:44 PM , Rating: 2
It's important to note that the Cloudbook and the Eee PC use hardware that's five or six years old, which in tech terms is an eternity. The Air uses contemporary hardware which costs more.
Keep in mind too that Apple is selling a brand much in the same way Calvin Kline sells jeans. You can't really compare the Cloudbook and Eee PC to the Air since they're intended for different markets.


RE: Nice, but..
By DarkPrime on 1/17/2008 11:36:51 AM , Rating: 1
I think some people forget about what helped to make the IPOD take off in the first place - I attribute it soley to the techies who were buying them left and right just to use as portable data storage because they could. It was that ability, less so than the mp3 playback (that was a bonus) that got their popularity to start soaring, despite their cost back then. Once they started selling and techies spread word about these being cool, then they really took off. Keep in mind, when the Ipod came out, Macs weren't considered any where near as cool as people perceive them to be today.


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