At Ericsson’s analyst conference, Lenovo spoke of various PC manufacturers rolling out $200-250 ‘netbook’ computers, equipped with 7-10″ screens, high speed wireless and optimized for mobile internet centric applications with long battery life.
You may not load a full version of Microsoft Office onto these machines for content creation, but the idea is to create a cross-over device – a bigger screen than smart phones.
We recently saw that Portugal is placing 500,000 such devices into its schools. Will commercial netbooks such as these supplant or supplement the one-laptop per child project?
Users may not want to activate a monthly HSPA service plan but might be interested in daily rates when travelling. Will HSPA service providers offer pay-as-you-go pricing (per day, per hour) to leverage the trend toward pervasive embedded wireless modules?
And while we are looking at alternate business models for mobile broadband, you might ponder if affordable mobile data pricing might lead to consumer electronics companies installing mobile gaming and streaming video in the backseats of our family fun wagons. Does DAVE’s affiliation with XM Canada give it a leg up in automotive distribution models?