Sony last week announced the company’s third quarter of fiscal year 2009 (actually corresponds to the fourth quarter of 2009) earnings. The report shows, PS3 in the first three quarters of fiscal year sales have already exceeded the sum of the entire 2008 fiscal year. We can say that PS3’s price cut in August and September the launch of the new ultra-thin version of the host effective in stimulating the PS3 sales.

Sony showed a profit, PS3 in the first three quarters of the total sales of 10.8 million units, of which 1.1 million units in the first quarter, second quarter, 3.2 million units, the third quarter (in 2009 9 to 12 months) soared to 650 million units. In the previous fiscal year (April 2008 to March 2009) of the total sales volume of only 10.1 million units. At the same time, PSP and PS2 sales are slightly down, game sales are also basic and unchanged from last year, showing that the new price cuts on the PS3 to push a significant role in promoting the sale.

History together, PS3 total sales volume reached 33.71 million units. Generation console, the Nintendo Wii The current total global sales of 67.45 million units, Xbox 360 can reach 39 million units.

Nuclear batteries can be used for 25 years

Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) announced that for the portable consumer, commercial and industrial applications, introduced the industry’s smallest fully functional battery gas gauge IC. The bq3060 can be converted into ordinary battery smart battery, lithium-ion battery applications can continue to accurately record the battery can be used to measure power, voltage, current, temperature and other important parameters. In addition, the single-chip device also offers highly reliable security features, support authentication, circuit, and discharge protection.

bq3060 addition to maximizing the functionality and security, it can also substantially reduce the cost and size of smart batteries. The device uses a 24-pin, 7.8 millimeters x 6.4 Hao Mi TSSOP package, with the high-end gas gauge solutions, compared to sharp declines in size by 50%. Small design so that the chip can reduce the number of portable battery pack designed to shape, to meet the portable commercial, medical and test equipment applications.

bq3060 main features:

Senior Compensation discharge end of the voltage (CEDV) monitoring technology to provide accurate gas monitoring;
Ultra-low-power mode (less than 69 μA) for extended battery run time and save time;
SHA-1 authentication helps OEM manufacturers to ensure compatibility with the host and the battery, thereby achieving a high level of security;
Support the programming options for high-speed 400 kHz two-wire SMBus 1.1 interface, can accelerate the design and testing of battery packs.

Availability

bq3060 has begun volume production is available through TI and its authorized distributors to order. In addition, there is provided simultaneously with the application of manual sampling.

Lithium battery research direction is the safety and endurance

From the third quarter of fiscal 2008 has been a loss, Sony a year later, again show a profit. Yesterday, the Sony Group, the third quarter of fiscal year 2009 performance, profitability, nearly 16 billion U.S. dollars. Based on this, the Sony Group’s full year results for fiscal year 2009 forecast has been adjusted, from a loss of ¥ 95,000,000,000 was reduced to a loss of ¥ 70,000,000,000.

Showed a profit, while consumer electronics products and components group sales declined, thanks to the financial sector and the film business, revenue growth in the third quarter with the Sony Group sales increased 3.9% compared with a year earlier. For example the movie “2012″ and “is like” and not aggressively this quarter to make a contribution to film and television business growth.

According to Yano Economic Research Institute predicted that hybrid electric vehicle market will continue to expand, while lithium batteries will also benefit from in 2011 began to replace nickel-metal hydride VGP-BPS2 batteries, lithium-ion is expected in 2015 rechargeable batteries in the automotive market, the proportion will rise to 15%, the market ¥ 100,000,000,000 size of a breakthrough, but by 2020 this proportion will be further raised to 30-40%, the market scale reached 2000-2600 yen.

And according to Japanese IIT predicts that the use of liquid lithium-ion battery (LiB) of the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), a pure electric vehicle (EV) from 2009, 2010 began the introduction of relatively large number, 2012, its market has not yet reached the size of nickel-hydrogen cell vehicles, but in 2013, began to go far beyond its size Ni-MH battery car; and, from 2013 onwards, Ni-MH VGP-BPS8 battery car size of the market had been the basic fixed , almost no growth, but the lithium battery market size cars, along with the new car market in the growth of the energy gradually grow and become the market mainstream.

Prior to the relatively nickel-hydrogen cell vehicles, lithium battery vehicle safety and cost issues more prominent. At present, these problems have to get better from the technical aspects of the solution.

Such as cost, according to Golden State securities analysis, lithium batteries cost more than nickel-metal hydride batteries, lithium batteries is mainly due to previously mainly used as cathode material of lithium cobalt oxide, which are noble metals cobalt, the price is high (50 yuan / ton, the amount of 60% cobalt lithium cobalt price of more than 400,000 yuan / ton); Now lithium battery cathode materials have been gradually cheaper lithium manganese oxide and lithium iron phosphate (18-30 yuan / ton range) transition.

Although the 2010 lithium batteries cost more than nickel-metal hydride batteries, but the cost of lithium batteries is expected to begin in 2010 will be dropped from the nickel-metal hydride batteries with a considerable level, even after the cost of lithium batteries will be significantly lower than the nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Many notebook users from Windows XP / Vista discovered after upgrading to Windows 7, the new system severely shorten the battery life.

Official Microsoft TechNet forums, there are users post, said he put himself in 2007 bought an HP laptop to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, but the battery life but never became a mere two hours, half an hour, but Microsoft is repeatedly promote the new system can significantly extend the battery life time. Other parts of the web forum had a similar question.

It is reported that Windows 7 is the root of the problem adds a new battery testing tool that can determine whether the battery needs to be replaced and inform the user, but in some cases, even though the battery business as usual, the system will judge whether the error that the battery has been exhausted, and recommended that users immediately replaced, and sometimes even directly shut down the system. Some users reflect the frustration that he did you are prompted to replace the old battery, but the new battery or continue to receive the same warning.

Some people say that this issue as early as Windows 7 Beta testing phase existed, but some say that the official version of RTM where phenomena. Posted by a user, said: “In the RTM version of Windows 7 prior to installing the battery, I have been normal, in my installation of all the Beta and RC versions where can persist for nearly three hours. Now, only had about 20 Windows 7 minutes to put my notebook shut. This situation is in my shift from the RC occur when the RTM. Needless to say, I have a very bad mood like everyone else. ”

Microsoft said in a statement that the problem has been known and noted, and Windows 7 to read the way the system firmware in many different types of notebook manufacturers are present. Microsoft said: “We are working with hardware partners to investigate this issue. Windows 7 with firmware information to determine whether the battery needs to be replaced. We are working with partners to find root of the problem, to obtain the necessary information and guidance and then go in (TechNet) Forum Update. ”

Microsoft also claimed that sometimes the new tool is working correctly, in other words, if it prompts you to replace the battery, it is possible your battery really has to be hung, but the chances of false positives is clearly too high.

Nokia mobile phones by the end of January to an overall decrease of its price, its the cheapest smart phone with rival Samsung Electronics and Sony Ericsson’s mid-range smart phone started competition.

Nokia said the mobile phone price changes are a part of their normal business. Nokia mobile phones in general several times a year down the price. Some industry sources told Reuters that Nokia will cut handset prices by 10%.

In the lower price, the Nokia 5230 smartphone the cheapest retail price in Finland is about 170 euros (239 dollars). This model phone wholesale price is now less than 120 dollars.

Cheap smart phone smartphone market demand-driven downturn in the economy resilient growth, with the industry trend of weak contrast. According to market research firm Strategy Analytics, said the fourth quarter of last year, the global smart phone sales grew by 30%.

Nokia last week said it in the fourth quarter sales of smart phones is 3.9 billion, growth of 26%, promoting the entire quarter revenue growth. Nokia’s smart phones in the fourth quarter, the average selling price of 190 euros from the third quarter fell to 186 euros.

Nokia cut prices will undermine the focus on mid-range feature phones, or Sony Ericsson cell phone manufacturers. This mid-range and features of mobile phone configuration is usually a very good camera or music player, but the lack of a computer-style open operating system. These handsets cheaper than the price of smart phones, but this price gap is narrowing.

Because of the economic recession that has affected consumer demand, the mobile phone industry in 2009 experienced a tough year, is currently being started to recover. It is down at this time Nokia cell phone prices. Nokia said it expects the mobile phone market in 2010 will grow 10%.

Li-ion battery will become the latest low-carbon economy excitement

As environment-friendly vehicles worldwide are sought, the hybrid electric cars and sells the next few years, the automotive battery market is booming. “It is predicted that by 2014 the market size will expand rapidly to 2.25 trillion yen (about 24.8 billion U.S. dollars), is about 215 times in 2008.; It is d a professional market research agency Fuji, Japan Economic Research Institute has recently taken statistics Inspiron 6000 battery.

Reducing emissions and oil resources in response to the twin pressures of an increasingly scarce in most countries, the development of new energy vehicles will be seen as a revitalization of the domestic auto industry and energy savings of how the most important, while reducing the more stressful, and the United States for promoting the flagship development of new energy vehicles. Recently, China and the United States issued the “Joint Declaration”, said that both parties will be launched at the initiative of the U.S. electric car, the two countries in years to come, more 1 million electric cars used.

In China, in March last year, “issued by the restructuring of the automotive industry and the revitalization of planning” in the development of new energy vehicles have also developed a broad target - the next three years, China will form a plug 500,000 electric hybrid type and common hybrids Energy Qijuchanneng. In 2012, the new production vehicles, there will be 10% energy saving and new energy vehicles, vehicles with new energy should reach 500 billion output value of RMB.

Faced with such an interesting cake market, prices of domestic cars, spare parts and other upstream companies have exposure to these products to very good early position.

Compared to conventional vehicles, new energy vehicle technology gap with foreign countries do not, there is the possibility of exceeding bend over to help companies involved to increase investment in new optimism energy vehicles . Among them, the battery powering the vehicle - lithium-ion battery is a major R & D related to the Latitude D830 battery target.

It is understood that the current hybrid cars use nickel-hydride technology battery metals major, but the nickel-metal hydride battery a number of technical features such as energy density, charge and discharge rate is close to its theoretical limits. The lithium battery has an energy density, high capacity, no memory, etc., are car manufacturers and battery suppliers unanimous support of the current national focus on R & D is the lithium-ion batteries .

According to the different cathode materials, lithium batteries are cobalt oxide, lithium, lithium manganese oxide, ternary materials, and four types of lithium iron phosphate. Lithium iron phosphate is the best hybrid vehicle using lithium cathode materials. Currently, prices of cars in China introduced models in purely electric vehicles, batteries power batteries are lithium, Chery, BYD uses iron phosphate lithium.

Although China Li-ion battery production ranks third in the world, but in products, and technical level with Japan, the United States, there is a certain gap, the lithium batteries of the automobile are not yet in the industrialization of the essay. Xinhua noted that the letter and other research institutions, China’s relatively backward production facilities of battery power, many companies focus on the subject, ignoring the improvements of the manufacturing equipment . At present, China will depend mainly on the production of batteries and equipment imports expensive, which is our development of battery power vehicle is very unfavorable power batteries in mass production It should be equipment for advanced automation, the focus of advanced research. In addition, most independent research firms in China battery power and development, funding is limited, only the fundamental problems to solve cell technology is difficult to advance further. Lack of adequate communication between businesses, all want to know the circumstances of other people do not want to talk about their own experiences, there is widespread low-level study of the phenomenon of repetition.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with an Atom N450 processor is just the latest Dell laptop to bear the Mini 10 name. It follows the Dell Mini 10 and Mini 10v, which had Atom Z520 and N270 processors, respectively.

Performance-wise, the new Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is a lot like the recently retired Mini 10v. But thanks to the new energy-sipping CPU, it gets significantly better laptop battery  life. And Dell has given the 10 inch mini-laptop a major design overhaul as well.

That includes a battery that no longer sticks out of the bottom of the laptop, and a new keyboard layout. Unfortunately one thing that hasn’t received a major update is the touchpad, which features difficult-to-use integrated click areas instead of dedicated left and right buttons.

The unit featured in this review has a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, an HSPA modem, 1GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive. It runs Windows 7 Home Premium.

Design

Dell pretty much broke the mold with the new Inspiron Mini 10. The company’s previous netbooks looked great with a low capacity 3 cell battery. But when you added a high capacity 6 cell GD761,TD347 battery, your netbook looked like it had a cancerous growth near its rear. The new Mini 10 does away with that. Both the 3 and 6 cell batteries sit flush with the base of the computer.

But the way Dell accomplished this is by redesigning the shape of the laptop to give it a bit more junk in the trunk. Basically, the base of the laptop is now bigger than the lid. This means that when the lid is closed, you can see a bit of the base. And when you open the lid to use the laptop, the screen no longer rests behind the notebook. Instead the hinge rests on top of the netbook base.

I’ve heard a lot of people complain that this design is just as unattractive as the enormous battery found on earlier netbook models, but it sort of grew on me. While the laptop might not look quite as slim as some netbooks on the market, I appreciate the effort that Dell put into making the new Mini 10 look better.

And there’s an unexpected benefit to the extra space behind the lid: I found it provided a perfect place to put my thumb when picking up the laptop with one hand. That makes it much easier to move the Mini 10 from room to room without closing the lid and putting the computer to sleep first.

The demo unit Dell Inspiron 1501 battery sent me has a shiny white plastic case and a black interior finish with a textured pattern printed on the palm rest and other areas surrounding the keyboard. The cover is surprisingly adept at not showing fingerprints. I’m not sure if this is due to the color or the finish. The laptop is also available with red, blue, pink, green, purple, or black lids.

Around the sides of the laptop you’ll find 3 USB ports, a VGA port, Ethernet, and mic and headphone jacks. There’s also card reader for SD and MS flash media.

The display is glossy, but easily readable under most indoor lighting conditions. The shiny black bezel around the lid, on the other hand, is quite reflective.

Hidden in the battery compartment is a SIM card slot, at least on the demo unit I received. The 3G HSPA modem is an optional component that won’t ship with all models.

On the bottom of the laptop you’ll find some vents, but no access panel. That means you’re going to have to perform some minor surgery on this laptop if you want to upgrade the RAM or other components.

One nice touch that Dell adds is single-piece power adapter. While most laptops come with a power brick and a separate cable, the Dell Mini 10 comes with just a single cord (with a rather bulky plug), making travel a little bit easier. The picture above shows the Dell Mini 10 power adapter on the left, and the adapter for a Lenovo IdeaPad S12 on the right. As you can see, they’re both about the same size. But it’s a lot easier to carry around a one piece solution.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The new Dell Mini 10 has a new keyboard that’s not that different from the keyboard used in earlier netbooks from Dell. The new design features keys with raised areas. The result is that the keys almost touch each other, but there’s space between the typing surface of each key. It’s sort of like a cross between one of those island-style keyboards that are all the rage these days and the original Dell Mini 10 keyboard which featured flat keys with little distance between them.

I like the keyboard, and in an online typing test I was able to eke out a score of 102 words per minute using this netbook. Your results may vary, but the keyboard certainly didn’t seem to slow me down any.

Dell takes an unusual approach to the top row of keys on its netbooks. While most companies provide you with a series of Fn keys that let you trigger alternate actions such as adjusting the volume or display brightness by hitting Fn+a Fn key, by default Dell’s top row of keys control those other functions. In other words, you hit F4 or F5 to adjust the screen brightness. If you’re using a program that actually requires you to use the F5 key, you’ll need to hit Fn+F5 to trigger that action. This makes sense, since most people probably use the brightness, volume, wireless , and other buttons more often than the Fn keys.

While I really like the keyboard, I really dislike the touchpad. In order to increase the surface area of the touchpad, Dell integrated the left and right buttons directly into the touchpad itself. Instead of pushing a separate button to click, you press down on the bottom right or bottom left corner of the touchpad.

This generally works well enough if you’re only using a single hand on the touchpad. You move the cursor around, lift your hand and move your finger to the bottom to click. But if you’re using two fingers to perform an action like dragging and dropping, you might run into some problems. I frequently had trouble clicking down on the touchpad with one finger while trying to drag a program or icon using the other finger. And if you have a tendency to hover your trigger finger over the mouse button while scrolling, you’d best be careful not to set your finger down lest the cursor should jump away just before you can click.

This short video should give you a sense of what I’m talking about, even though I don’t experience too many problems in the video itself. It turns out it’s kind of hard to reproduce these touchpad problems on demand. They only really occur when you’re trying to do something else.

Dell has also chosen to drop support for multitouch gestures. You can scroll up and down and left to right by moving your finger over the right or bottom edges of the touchpad. But there’s no support for two-finger scrolling or pinching to zoom.

Performance

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 performs pretty much as you’d expect from a netbook with Intel Atom N450 processor and GMA 3150 graphics. It can handle 720p HD video playback, but 1080p HD video is a non-starter, as if HD Flash video.

Dell Inspiron 1520 battery will soon offer users the option of ordering the Mini 10 with a Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator which will add support for HD video playback. Right now that means local videos only, but Adobe and Broadcom are working to add support for HD Flash video in the upcoming Adobe Flash Player 10.1 beta 3.

The Mini 10 got got a score of 2.3 on the Windows 7 Experience Index, with the low CPU score counting as the weakest link.

I ran a handful of tests on the netbook to test its performance at transcoding audio and video files, launching resource-intensive applications, and copying and zipping files. Overall, the Mini 10’s scores were pretty close to those of the Asus Eee PC 1005PE, another netbook with an Atom N450 CPU and GMA 3150 graphics. Which is to say, the performance is pretty much on par with what you’d expect from any netbook released in the past two years with an Intel Atom Nxx series processor.

The tests involve transcoding a 4 minute, 34 second video file using VirtualDub and a 13:25 audio clip using WinLAME. The folder copy and zip tests involve copying a folder with 2186 files totaling 478MB to a new folder and then creating a zip file containing all those files using 7-zip.

Of course, you’re probably not going to spend a lot of time transcoding audio and video files on a netbook. But as with most Atom powered netbooks, I had no difficulty surfing the web using Firefox or Google Chrome with multiple tabs open. Skype video call quality was passable, if not great. And resource-intensive applications such as image editor GIMP and Openoffice.org opened reasonably quickly.

Battery

While the new Dell Mini 10 performs about the same as the earlier Mini 10v with an Atom N270 processor, there’s one major difference: The new model gets significantly better battery life. When I tested the Mini 10v, I was able to get between 6 and 7 hours of run time on a charge by surfing the web over WiFi with the screen brightness hovering somewhere near the middle setting. Under the same conditions, I’ve been getting about 9 hours of run time out of the new Mini 10.

Both netbooks ship with optional 6 cell, 56Whr batteries, so the improved run time isn’t coming from the battery. It’s hard to say if the new Pine Trail processor is the only reason for the improved battery life. It could also be software-related. The new Mini 10 ships with Windows 7 Starter Edition while the Mini 10v came with Windows XP. Whatever the reason, the new Mini 10 gets significantly better battery life, and that’s a good thing.

The Dell Inspiron Mini 10 is also available with a 3 cell, 28Whr battery which should be good for around 4 to 4.5 hours of run time.

Software

The demo unit Dell sent me to review came preloaded with Windows 7 Starter Edition and a handful of programs from Dell and third parties. That includes the McAfee Security suite, which seemed to bog down the system. The first time I ran my benchmarks, for example, the video transcoding test took 475 seconds. After removing McAfee, the score dropped to 427 seconds. I’d recommend using a lighter weight anti-virus application such as Microsoft Security Essentials, which also happens to be available as a free download.

Dell also loads up the Mini 10 with the Dell Dock application. I’m personally not a huge fan of docks, and I find this one to be particularly annoying since I accidentally wind up pulling it up every time I move the cursor to the top of the screen with the intention of clicking on a program window. So I disabled the dock at the first opportunity. But if you prefer an OS X-style dock to the Windows 7 Start Menu, you might find the Dell Dock to be useful.

Verdict

The new Dell Mini 10 is a bit thicker and heavier than many contemporary laptops. It measures about 10.5″ x 9.2″ x 1.4″ and weighs just over 3 pounds with a 6 cell battery. But I appreciate the way Dell has designed the laptop so that it looks no different with a 6 cell battery than with a lower capacity 3 cell battery. The shiny, but fingerprint-free lid is also a nice touch.

Performance-wise, there’s no real reason to choose the Mini 10 over any other Atom Pine Trail netbook. But with over 9 hours of battery life, the new Mini 10 is one of the best laptops around when it comes to endurance. And Dell is expected to offer a number of customization options soon including a model with a higher resolution 1366 x 768 pixel display and Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator, the 3G modem option found in the unit reviewed here, and a number of color choices for the lid (although I have no idea why you’d want to spend $40 to change the lid color on a $299 netbook).

If Steve Jobs and company are paying attention, we’ve got a handful of requests for the upcoming Apple press event. I know we’re all very excited about the mythical, but still unconfirmed, Apple PA3191U-3BRS tablet, but there are some other Mac products that could use a little attention as well.

The MacBook line of laptops is a big part of the company’s product mix, and though we’re not going off the reservation by saying we’re generally very fond of the current generation of systems, there are still a few missing features that should be filled in.

So, Steve, if in the midst of announcing the all-powerful uberslate, you could find a few minutes to address a handful of MacBook issues, we’d sure appreciate it.

New Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 CPUs
We’re not saying that any laptop without Intel’s new mainstream CPUs is ready for the recycling bin, but now would be an ideal time to update the processors inside the entire line, to take advantage of the improved power efficiency and other advantages of the new Core i-series chips.

SD card slots across the board
Even a $299 Netbook has one of these useful little media card readers. And finally, after years of gentle ribbing from us and others, Apple added an SD card reader to the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro models. But, it’s still not on the most popular MacBook, the $999 base model PA3191U-4BRS.

Blu-ray drives
For a high-end laptop with plenty of media cred, it’s a bit awkward for MacBooks to not at least offer the option of adding a Blu-ray drive. It’s clearly not a cost issue, as expensive SSD options have been available from Apple for some time. At this point, many high-end PCs in the MacBook’s price range include a Blu-ray drive by default.

Mobile broadband options
With the sheer number of Mac laptops we see at coffee shops and airports, having an always-on Internet connection seems like another natural fit. It’s widely available as a built-in option from most PC makers, and newer antenna hardware can work with more than one carrier. Sure, using a USB key antenna is always an option, but why mess up that sleek Apple silhouette?

HDMI outputs
While the mini-DisplayPort is Apple’s video connection of choice, actually hooking it up to monitors besides the ones Apple sells is a bit of a hassle. Some laptops, especially larger desktop replacements, offer a combo of HDMI, VGA, and even DVI. We’ll settle for a single HDMI, which carries both sound and video, and would make getting iTunes videos up on our big-screen TVs even easier.

Make a low-cost Netbook-style system
Nah, never going to happen…

If any of these sound familiar, that’s because we’ve mentioned several of them before. Interestingly, while most of these have been on our wish list for some time, a few of our long-time MacBook suggestions have made their way into real life, from the SD card slots on select models to the inclusion of the large multitouch track pad filtering down on the base $999 white MacBook.

Apple’s iPad was probably the most talked about unannounced devices in the laptop battery technology space over the past year, but did it live up to all of the rumors and speculation? At least a couple industry analysts who spoke with CNET after the event in San Francisco think so.

“Apple threw it down today,” said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis at market research firm Interpret. “They (Apple) came and did what they needed to do.”

Van Baker, research vice president at technology research firm Gartner, agreed. “It’s a home run. You can use it in classrooms, the living room, or anywhere else,” he said.

The one part of the presentation that surprised everyone was the price reveal. Market expectations were that Apple would price the iPad somewhere between $600 and $1,000. At $499 for the base model, Apple appears more aggressive than many expected PA3191U-3BRS.

“Price points are aggressive, but that will bring in a lot of customers,” said Gartenberg.

The iPad has a lot going for it. During his keynote today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said it contained the company’s “most advanced technology.” Perhaps more importantly, the iPad uses the same ecosystem built for the iPod and iPhone.

The iPad is able to run all of the same apps that the iPhone does. So, if you purchased apps, you can use them on the new device. That in itself will eliminate one of the biggest gripes users have about purchasing a new device.

Jobs made a point of saying that Apple already has 75 million people who know how to use the iPad because they own an iPhone or iPod Touch. That point wasn’t lost on Interpret’s Gartenberg.

“Apple is leveraging everything they taught consumers over the last few years,” said Gartenberg. “The iPod, iTunes, multitouch, iPhone, videos, music, and the App Store are all part of this.”

Apple positioned the iPad between the iPhone and a Netbook. Jobs said that “Netbooks aren’t better at anything,” and that Apple wanted something that was better PA3191U-4BRS.

While Apple may have dismissed the Netbook outright as competition, it may be a comparison consumers make when deciding which device to purchase in the future. If they do, Gartenberg doesn’t hold out much hope for the Netbook.

“Netbooks will have a hard time justifying themselves in this market,” he said.