Let’s look at trends. Global netbook profit is down by 26% in the first quarter of 2009. Industry leader ACER had shipments of their netbooks up by 300% but profits down by 30%. This makes sense, as the netbook market is slowly being “filled” to the brim with the influx of, well, everybody coming up with ultra cheap laptops with very little margins. So it is quite understandable why profits will go down, despite the increase in shipment. The new business model for netbooks imply higher volumes and lower margins and it looks like this netbook strategy is slowly dying. Not that we want it dead, but we need more revenue streams!
ACER recently released its contender to the notebook war — an ongoing battle of “my laptop is better than yours.” We’ve seen gaming rigs, high fashion notebooks (ASUS Lamborghini vs. ACER Ferrari), netbooks, and now the ultrathins. Big contenders are the MacBook Air, which paved the way to this CD-driveless segment, the MSI X Slim and the ACER Timeline.
Here’s a footnote: the best way to get the media to stay in your event is to give them no choice. Hold it in the middle of the ocean.
You know what? The Manila Bay sunset is still amazing after all these years.
The Timeline is definitely not the thinnest of the bunch. I’m a little disappointed with the higher version of the scale, the Timeline 3935, mainly because despite its stock 3GB DDR3 memory (wow!) it only comes with an Intel GMA 4500 MHD accelerator, which uses shared memory to run games. The MHD series is basically a mobile version of the 4500HD, allowing you to run Blu-Ray compatible disks. You’d need to buy a separate Blu-Ray drive for the Timeline, obviously, as it doesn’t have one. There’s a bias here as games like Call of Duty 4 and Left for Dead wil be rendered unplayable with this set up. So gamers, look for something else. I’ll say it again: I find it sad that the most powerful model brings home a hot RAM setup, but bad graphics accelerator options.
More Timeline specs in this link.
If you’re not into gaming, the Timeline is still a good multimedia companion. Remember – it is Blu-Ray compatible because of the graphics accelerator! The trackpad also adds multi-touch functionality allowing you to resize icons, scroll through tabs and many more given you remember the gestures that’s imprinted on the decal (there’s an odd motion where you have to draw a reverse Q with your fingers … I’m not sure what it does).
As an initial verdict, as I was not able to take this home, the Timeline’s reckoning will go so far depending on the price, which I do not yet have for local shores. ACER has always been known for quality though, so warranty and service is a non-issue with them.
P.S. What really caught my eye that night was the ACER Revo. Now that we have netbooks, let’s say hello to nettops! Coming up next …
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