This has 'Intel' written all over it. They've done it to AMD for years, and now it's time to hose Nvidia.

They were preaching the screensize-dictates-everything crap months ago.

well, the heavy-handedness of both Intel and MSFT will probably come back to bite them both.

Clearly, the hardware manufacturers resent being told what they "cannot do" - imposing physical limits on screen sizes/resolutions for use with a particular flavor of OS is ham-handed to the extreme.

So I think netbook manufacturers can always just 'walk away' from Intel + MSFT in this segment - they can just choose an AMD processor+chipset, or even a Via Nano+chipset to build low-cost netbooks. While there isn't anything as sexy as the Ion available yet for those CPUs, it's only a matter of time before that happens. Watch for some announcements from both AMD and Via on this front.

well, the heavy-handedness of both Intel and MSFT will probably come back to bite them both.

Clearly, the hardware manufacturers resent being told what they "cannot do" - imposing physical limits on screen sizes/resolutions for use with a particular flavor of OS is ham-handed to the extreme.

So I think netbook manufacturers can always just 'walk away' from Intel + MSFT in this segment - they can just choose an AMD processor+chipset, or even a Via Nano+chipset to build low-cost netbooks. While there isn't anything as sexy as the Ion available yet for those CPUs, it's only a matter of time before that happens. Watch for some announcements from both AMD and Via on this front.

doesn't ION use something like 10W? Battery life would be rubbish, and anyway it's not like your going to be playing games on your netbook.

Man, I really hate what they are doing here. They want to stifle netbooks and keep them exactly where they are, just so they can keep their much higher profit for thin & lights and bigger laptops. Guess what, netbooks are damn popular, and if something like this takes off, then they're just losing more potential profits. Personally I don't need anything more than a netbook. I run Photoshop on mine with no complaints, as well as any other program I need. My only complaints are the limited screen size/resolution and not being able to play some of my games, otherwise I think it's perfect. I'm still waiting for the N510, I think it's just about what I need, but if the prices are pushed any bit over the $600 mark then I'll consider a thin & light instead.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090526PD211.html

"Microsoft and Intel have reached a consensus to decrease the upper screen-size limit for netbook PCs equipped with Windows 7 from 12.1 inches to 10.2 inches"

May 2009... no wonder it took me awhile to dig it up.

Fact is Atom has been cannibalizing sales of low-end Celeron notebooks and it is all great for Intel, for now, because they claim Atom has much higher profit margins anyways. They clearly trying to keep Atom out of the range of Core 2 though.

I guess it comes down to large percentage of low sales price vs. small/smaller percentage of much higher sales price. e.g. $80 for N330 plus Intel 945GC vs. $280 for Core i7 920. Assuming Atom is 100% profit, that is $80 from Atom and assuming is 40% profit for COre i7 920, that is still $112. I am going to guess the situation does not favor Atom based on Intel's actions. ;-)

Quote: "The Vole has made it clear that it does not want netbook makers to use entry-level Windows 7 on machines with screens bigger than 10.1 inches."
I hope one of these manufactures sues the convicted monopolist MS for this crap.

All of these "limits" are being placed by Microsoft, not Intel. Why doesn't someone "go out on a limb" and make a super netbook, one with:

Atom 330 (yes, dual core)
Ion Chipset
9 Cell battery
12", 1280x800 LCD
Linux only, but include instructions/drivers for Windows anyway.

The thing would last 6 hours and be a beast. People would be installing XP anyway, and the people who would want such a beast would know how to install XP on a netbook. It would be a cult hit.

Maybe they were given "Special" discounts to detail the ion lappies?