Newspaper Article- Week 8

The article I decided to write about this week is written by Saul Hansell and is entitled Nokia’s Net book Comes with Marathon Battery Life it was published in October 13th issue of New York Times newspaper. In this article is talks about how Nokia is entering the personal computer market with a small net book computer, the booklet 3g, which has specifications much like a : 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, and a headphone and microphone combined on one jack. It also has a good price if you sign up for a two-year contract for wireless data on AT&T: $299. If the contract is not purchased it cost $599 without the $60 monthly commitment. The actual Booklet, which will be on sale exclusively at Best Buy staring in mid-November, runs Windows 7. And like Apple’s Mac books, it is cut out of a single piece of aluminum. The absolutely most intriguing feature, however, is not common on laptops or cell phones: 12-hour battery life. Nokia is trying to carve out a premium segment in the net book market, which has largely seen a race to the bottom in prices. Best Buys current assortment ranges from $250-$500 for net books without a wireless contract and subsidy. AT&T offers three net book models with a contract for $200 each. AT&T’s best seller, the Acer Aspire, claims only three hours of battery life. One way that Nokia was able to extend the battery life was to use the slowest of Intel’s Atom processors. That raises the risk that the booklet, like other Atom-based devices, will be sluggish to use. Nokia is clear that you wouldn’t want to use the machine to play intensive video games or to do bridge engineering. But when I played with one at Nokia’s press conference in New York Wednesday, it seemed fast enough rendering complex Web pages and displaying YouTube videos. At the event, Glenn Lurie, the president of AT&T’s emerging device unit, said he understood that a $60 monthly data plain put the device out of the range of many potential consumers. He said that AT&T would introduce other data plans with lower prices before the end of the year, possibly including prepaid plans and those that charge users only for the days they are actually online.
I feel like the net book idea was very smart on someone’s part because it is very convenient for laptop users that are on the go. I use my net book when I travel mostly because it is so small and easily accessible. The only disadvantage to net books period are the lack of disc drive and battery life. Well Nokia has come up with a great invention because they have made a whooping twelve hour battery for their Booklet that will be release in mid-November. The disadvantage to the Booklet could be overcharging the battery and possibly ruining it. Also the one question I have is why haven’t they come out with a battery life of this sort for cell phones??