“Low cost small notebook PC” is Microsoft’s laughable new tag for what everyone else calls netbooks. Whatever they’re smoking, keep it away from us.
Computex 2009 | This week began on a pleasing note for the lexicology of little laptops but it’s plummeted to an all-new depth.
First up, Psion backed down over its exclusive claim to the word ‘netbook’ – a term that the UK-based niche player had used as a product brand from the mid ‘90s but dropped in 2003, five years before Intel and the rest of the industry adopted the catchy tag.
Earlier this year Psion persuaded Google to ban the use of the term “netbook” in Adsense ads and began slapping bloggers with cease-and-desist letters, although that ill-advised move backfired when the community launched a ‘save the netbook’ campaign.
Intel and Dell also filed suit to have Psion’s ‘netbook’ trademark revoked. In the meantime, vendors including HP and Toshiba began referring to their devices as mini-notes or mini-notebooks.
But on Monday Psion announced an “amicable agreement” between itself and Intel. The company said it will withdraw all trademark registrations for ‘netbook’ and not take legal action against anyone using the term.
So all’s well that ends well, right? Well, no. One day after Psion stopped being Psilly, Microsoft has decided that the netbook should in fact be called a “low cost small notebook PC.” Yep, that really rolls off the tongue.
Microsoft’s exec Steven Guggenheimer drew the short straw and had to introduce the term to an incredulous audience at Computex in Taipei, which is rather like denouncing Jesus in Vatican Square on Easter Sunday.
Guggenheimer’s argument is that since almost all netbooks do much more than just Internet-based activities such as Web browsing, email and IM chat sessions, the term is misleading. And as we all know, Microsoft is a champion of fair play.
Of course, this has nothing to do with the fact that Microsoft will restrict low-cost sales of Windows 7 Starter to netbooks (or should that be low cost small notebook PCs?) by
hobbling them with limits such as a 10.2 inch screen and 1GB of RAM, while also seeking to minimise the number of cut-priced OS licences it sells to OEMs.
The new term underscores those restrictions and is intended to help bump higher-end netbooks into a space where Microsoft can sell them a higher margin version of Windows 7 such as Home Basic or Home Premium.
David Flynn is attending Computex 2009 as a guest of Intel.