Asus Eee: Threat to Apple, Microsoft, HP, Dell and the Hard Drive Vendors?
Submitted by srlinuxx on Wed, 01/02/2008 - 08:17.
Asus? Taiwanese PC manufacturer Asustec offers a tiny laptop called the Asus Eee (pictured right). It weighs less than 2 pounds, is bump and shock resistent, and sells for $399 or $499 depending on the storage.
The Eee's appearance on one of Amazon's bestseller lists is a critical milestone for the PC manufacturers: Internet connectivity and online apps have become good enough that local storage and processing matter less. And that means a new generation of popular, highly portable laptops that cost under $500.
The Asus Eee and its ilk haven't yet made a dent in the revenues or margins of Apple (AAPL), Dell (DELL) or HP (HPQ). But before investors in those stocks get complacent, they should check out Amazon's Most Wished For Notebooks list.
Hardly a threat ? Flash memory has MTBF problems ?
Mean time between failure for MLC Nand is 3000 hours. MTBF for hdd is 250,000 hours.
But there is more to problems of using flash memory in place of hdd. It is the circuits controlling the flash memory. The write current and voltage to write or rewrite the data. The temperature annealing cycle to write null data(erase). This is sort of like battery recharging circuits. Discharge and recharge to get the chemical balance corrected in all batteries. External charger can be replaced for better charging circuits later.
Then flash cards are not hermatically sealed against humidity during wrtie cycles.
ASUS EeePc already had returns(twice for the same white laptop) at Myer store in Australia due to flash card problem, reported here at Tuxmachines too. This will plague ASUS, Classmate and OLPC as well.
This problem is well known in digital cameras, where flash memory was used for many years already. Problems are often flash memory card locked out, by contact resistance. Flash card has to be warmed up to be able to be used correctly. Flash card failure is often due to checksum error of a single transistor failure.
On the other hand, hdd price points are dropping due to material cost going down for smaller hdd(s). 1 inch hdd hardly use much cheap materials. MTBF was improved by a coating on the magnetic disk. Coated glass disk is cheaper than coated aluminum disk.
So, unless flash cards improve much or controlling circuits improve much; hdd has to be the backup storage device to save the laptop or desktop? Why throw them away like cameras, when USB hdd can save the computer?