DailyTech - Fujitsu Enters Netbook Fray with Amilo Mini

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Gadgets Fujitsu Enters Netbook Fray with Amilo Mini
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - August 29, 2008 12:50 PM

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27 comment(s) - last by Penti.. on Sep 5 at 2:20 AM

Fujitsu Minlo Mini Ui 3520 Netbook (Source: JKKMobile)

Fujitsu had previously said it was staying away from netbooks

We can thank ASUS for kicking off the netbook craze with its Eee PC line. Originally, it looked like the netbook class would be mostly aimed at schools and developing nations along the lines of the XO notebook.

Contrary to that initial belief, the netbook has been embraced by consumers as a low cost alternative to a traditional notebook for surfing the web and other tasks. Fujitsu has announced that it will be entering into the netbook fray with a netbook called the Amilo Mini.

JKKMobile reports that the little system will use an 8.9-inch LCD with a resolution of 1024 x 600 and will run an Intel Atom at 1.6GHz. The operating system for the little netbook will be Windows XP Pro and it will have 60GB or 80GB storage options.

The storage options are not in the form of SSDs -- commonly seen in the netbook class. The storage in the Amilo Mini will be traditional hard drives with significantly lower performance that other netbooks using HDDs. The 60GB HDD spins at a mere 3,600 rpm and the 80GB is a 4,200 rpm unit. Most netbooks that use HDDs spin at 5,400 rpm.

It's ironic that Fujitsu has decided to enter into the netbook market; it has previously spoken out against both SSDs and netbooks. Fujitsu's Paul Moore, senior director of mobile product management said, "We’re sitting on the sidelines not because we’re lazy. We’re sitting on the sidelines because even if this category [netbooks and SSDs] takes off, and we get our piece of the pie, it doesn’t add up. It’s a product that essentially has no margin." AMD has also decided against pursuing the netbook market.

Other features of the Amilo Mini are an ExpressCard slot, USB 2.0 ports, VGA out, 1.3-megapixel webcam, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. The netbook measures 233 x 29-36 x 175mm and weighs 1kg. Pricing for the Amilo Mini will be around $585 -- expensive for a netbook.

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A shame.

By masher2

(blog) on 8/29/2008 12:58:07 PM , Rating: 2

From the pics, it looks like a little better engineering could have given that model a 10" screen with zero increase in physical size or weight.

RE: A shame.

By Master Kenobi

(blog) on 8/29/2008 1:19:59 PM , Rating: 2

True. Probably would have added a few ounces to the total weight though.

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RE: A shame.

By Penti on 8/30/2008 5:06:37 AM , Rating: 2

The 8.9" screens might be cheaper though.

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RE: A shame.

By MonkeyPaw on 8/29/2008 5:52:00 PM , Rating: 5

quote:
From the pics, it looks like a little better engineering could have given that model a 10" screen with zero increase in physical size or weight.

And with even a little more engineering they could have put a 5400rpm HDD inside. It will take ages to boot XP on that 3600rpm model, and then go try to load an actual application on it.

$585 for this is pathetic. The only way they could sell this little for that much is to put an Apple logo on it.

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RE: A shame.

By Gul Westfale on 8/29/2008 9:56:18 PM , Rating: 2

but that is where the profit margin comes in... fujitsu probably realisec taht the profits come not from basic crap models, but from

a) economies of scale
b) higher-priced deluxe models.

kinda like with cars, where you might not make money on a compact car, but since those compacts use the same windshield wiper motor and power window motors as the midsize models you can then make more money on those cars by just ordering larger quantities of the same parts than ordering separate parts for each model of car.

so, in this case i would bet that fujitsu will soon make a higher-specced, more expensive model with a 10-inch screen and a slightly faster HDD/CPU that is built into the same case, and uses the same motherboard as well.

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RE: A shame.

By ET on 8/30/2008 11:59:32 PM , Rating: 4

It doesn't cost $585. It costs 399 Euro, which likely translates to $399 when it will arrive in the US. Maybe even less, considering how much more expensive European prices typically are. It's just DailyTech's bad reporting which translated it.

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RE: A shame.

By Penti on 8/31/2008 7:43:56 PM , Rating: 2

I don't see why a Fujitsu Siemens Computer would be released in the US especially since Fujitsu doesn't carry the Amilo series. It's different companies even if they cooperate.

Your however correct about the price. But you also forgetting that most in US pay some sales taxes for most purchases too and that it is more expensive then what you said. It was announced in Germany so one can expect it that the price included the German VAT/sales tax, that's 19%. Which would make it equal to ~$500 USD before taxes. Still expensive, but it's not sold in the US! Acer One etc costs around 300 Euro here (not that my country uses € we still have our Krona/Crown). European prices are btw not more expensive, before taxes some stuff like alienware computers are even cheaper and we got consumer electronics that's assembled within the European union still, even if it's by Taiwanese and Korean companies now. It's just our sales taxes that's higher, but countries like Switzerland are pretty much on pair with US and only got a 7.6% sales tax (which isn't possible within EU though, as normal sales tax aren't allowed to be under 15%.).

Btw the FSC computer are even assembled by FSC itself. It isn't a product from Asustek, Quanta, MSI, Compal, Uniwill or Foxconn!

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RE: A shame.

By lhlinlhlin on 9/1/2008 9:17:41 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
Btw the FSC computer are even assembled by FSC itself. It isn't a product from Asustek, Quanta, MSI, Compal, Uniwill or Foxconn!

Nop! I don't know how you get this piece of information. As far as I know that FSC 's OEM/OEM includes Compal, Quanta, and Wistron. FSC doesn't assemble the product but itself at all. As matter of fact, there are over 90% of the Notebook PC OEM manufactured by the the Taiwanese companies.

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RE: A shame.

By Penti on 9/5/2008 2:20:00 AM , Rating: 2

Dude I was talking about assembling stuff not manufacturing. They are completely different things and they do indeed own there own assembling facilities. That doesn't mean they don't use the ODMs for manufacturing, as there are no others to go too of course they do.

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XP Pro or XP Home?

By Chadder007 on 8/29/2008 1:17:55 PM , Rating: 3

I thought MS was only allowing XP Home on these units?

RE: XP Pro or XP Home?

By kbehrens on 8/29/2008 3:46:58 PM , Rating: 2

MS can't ban anyone from installing a particular OS on a particular machine. All they could possibly do is deny them their OEM discount.

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RE: XP Pro or XP Home?

By CU on 8/29/2008 4:22:29 PM , Rating: 2

Sure they can ban them. All they have to do is not sale it. So, unless Fujitsu has a stock pile of XP Pro's then they cannot install it.

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RE: XP Pro or XP Home?

By themadmilkman on 8/29/2008 7:08:30 PM , Rating: 2

"Not sale it" is legally very difficult to do, especially when they do sell the same product to other companies.

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RE: XP Pro or XP Home?

By CU on 8/29/2008 9:03:36 PM , Rating: 2

I thought they were going to quite selling XP.

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RE: XP Pro or XP Home?

By idconstruct on 8/30/2008 12:36:22 AM , Rating: 2

Should be:
"Sell" not "Sale" &
"Quit" not "Quite"

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more competition

By amdwilliam1985 on 8/29/2008 3:55:06 PM , Rating: 2

I've been eyeing these netbooks for a while now. The prices has not gone down enough for me to jump on the bandwagon.
Where is the dell's netbook?
Does anyone have an idea when will Dell get their stuff on the market?

RE: more competition

By SilthDraeth on 8/29/2008 4:38:57 PM , Rating: 2

I work for a school district, and our Dell Representative showed us some inside slides on the Dell netbook. It is very similar to the EEE, or the MSI Wind. It should be out in October or November I believe, though I could be wrong. I don't recall the release date, only that it is complete.

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RE: more competition

By idconstruct on 8/30/2008 12:46:24 AM , Rating: 2

Sweet! I've also been eying these up for a while but each offering so far seems to either have one glaring flaw (or two) or the price was just too high.
Wanting this for typical reasons (school, surfing), I would like a reasonable screen and close-to-normal keyboard, but most importantly, long battery life.

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Bleh

By Gage8 on 8/30/2008 2:42:16 PM , Rating: 2

I just got the Acer Aspire One
- 8.9 inch screen
- 2.2 lb
- 120GB 5400rpm hard drive
- 1GB mem
- XP home

...all for $350 from Best Buy. Puts this netbook to shame.

RE: Bleh

By jtesoro on 8/31/2008 6:06:20 AM , Rating: 2

Am strongly considering that. How's the battery? And using the mouse pad? Read that the pad is too small and the button placement makes clicking awkward.

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RE: Bleh

By Gage8 on 9/1/2008 10:08:47 AM , Rating: 2

Stock 3-cell gives about 2.5 hours. There is a 6-cell coming out that should give 6+ hours. Mouse takes some getting used to, but the software is sophisticated. Except for highlighting text, I never need to use the buttons.

I would not hesitate to recommend it as the best netbook choice at this point. Dell or Lenvo might change that with their offerings. But for $350, that is the cost of an Ipod...this thing is hard to beat.

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flexible keyboard

By TimberJon on 8/29/2008 4:01:50 PM , Rating: 2

I read that this thing flexes like a wet patty on the grill. Bad engineering is for sure.

RE: flexible keyboard

By grenableu on 8/30/2008 2:06:07 PM , Rating: 2

I'm sure this has much better build quality than your MSI or Asus netbook. Too bad the specs don't measure up though.

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Already had something in that size

By adiposity on 8/29/2008 5:18:17 PM , Rating: 2

http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildse...

It costs a lot more, but fujitsu already had products in approximately this form factor. They are pretty nice, too.

-Dan

RE: Already had something in that size

By elpresidente2075 on 8/30/2008 12:57:43 PM , Rating: 2

Well, most companies have had something in approximately this form factor for some time. The difference is that these models are (as you touched on) MUCH less expensive.

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Even if...

By BigToque on 8/29/2008 3:48:36 PM , Rating: 3

"We’re sitting on the sidelines not because we’re lazy. We’re sitting on the sidelines because even if this category [netbooks and SSDs] takes off, and we get our piece of the pie, it doesn’t add up. It’s a product that essentially has no margin."

Even if this particular product had 0% margin it could be quite valuable to the company. If someone buys this laptop and they like it, they'll associate the Fujitsu brand with good products. This leads to additional purchases or recommendations for Fujitsu.