subject: Sony, Lenovo Look To Move Beyond Netbooks [print this page] Sony will move beyond traditional Netbooks, a market it has never fully embraced, while Lenovo is making a case for these more powerful, but small laptops already.Sony will move its Netbook-class laptops up-market with Advanced Micro Devices newest Brazos processors, according to sources. Those AMD chips integrate two processing cores and graphics silicon with robust performance--the latter feature a major departure from Intel's Atom, the standard for Netbooks."Sony wants to get out of Netbooks," one source said. Intel has "created a great opening for AMD. They can now drive a big truck through that [performance] gap and gain a bunch of loyalty with" PC makers," said the source.When contacted, Sony would not comment.And, today, Lenovo announced what it is calling Olympus BLS-1 battery an "ultraportable"--the 11.6-inch ThinkPad X120e. "Integrating an AMD Fusion E-Series [processor] gives users 65 percent faster graphics performance," according to Lenovo's release.These new AMD-based systems from Sony and Lenovo--expected to make an appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show this week--are not labeled Netbooks. Lenovo's X120e, for example, has the same screen size as Apple's 11.6-inch MacBook Air ultraportable laptop.Intel says the competition was not unforeseen. "We always expected to compete with AMD in this space, and I guess this is further proof that the death of the Netbook has been greatly exaggerated," said Intel spokesman Bill Kircos, in a statement. "Over the past two years, we've learned that size, connectivity, battery life and price matter most in companion PC devices Olympus E-400 battery like Netbooks, and that's where our priorities are," he said.Sony currently markets the Vaio W series of Netbooks that sport Intel Atom processors and are priced from $449 on Sony's Web site.At the high end, Sony also has the 1.6-pound Vaio X series based on Atom processors. But Sony has been careful not to call the Vaio X a Netbook. Both Vaio X models are currently being discounted. For example, the lower-end model has been cut to $1,099 from $1,299.The new AMD-based Sony models will be dropped Olympus PS-BLS1 battery into a non-Netbook price band, above $500."Sony is more of a premium brand and this makes sense for them from that perspective," said Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at IDC.
