Exploding laptops – perhaps we should review our needs

With its perpetual quest to squeeze more power into smaller spaces, it was only a matter of time before the portable computing world became unstuck.

We’ve written a few articles recently on the so called exploding batteries and wondered if perhaps it might be a time to reflect on how we ended up in this situation and how or what the answers are.

Cast your minds back to 1998, when Apple launched an ad campaign outlining how much power the Intel chips required, it was called the ‘toasted bunny’ and featured a fireman putting out a burning Intel production worker. How ironic that both Apple and Dell should today be suffering from the same problems. OK – I hear you saying ‘it’s the batteries’ – well the reason the batteries today need near ‘nuclear pile’ capability is because of the power drawn from the CPU’s and associated components.

Part of the problem is because of the myth perpetuated and funded by Intel that it’s all about Mhz. This myth has been the bane of PC notebook manufacturers for some time – trying to squeeze more and faster in a smaller box.

We think that its about time the market stepped back and took a bold look at what the consumer needs as opposed to what the marketers at Intel tell them and us what we want.

With the growth of notebook sales taking over desktop units the pressure will get even greater to compete on Mhz in the box again.

Looking at the way forward perhaps Bill Gates has it right when he says that the ultimate convergence product will in fact be the mobile phone.

With an increase in the availability and a lowering of costs of broadband wireless networking surely the most important elements of computing number crunching and communication moving to the internet. The need to provide a massively (heat producing and expensive) central CPU in the portable device itself is removed.

Of course the irony is that such a device is near completion, this device was developed at MIT with the intention of providing a $100 laptop for children in the third world.

Its specifications show it to be light enough, powerful enough and low in cost. Battery life is also excellent. The device would make an ideal corporate device if wirelessly linked to back end systems via rich internet media technology and applications – such as Salesforce.com.

The corporate market should seriously look at the “One Laptop per Child” project and view it as an opportunity to lower costs and partially escape the Intel/Microsoft duopoly that has held back the market for so long. IS&T managers check out the website – imagine the device in a lovely corporate grey. Better still, pay an extra $20 per device and sponsor the next generation of users.