[Arm-netbook] Good netbook based on Cortex-A9

[lkcl luke]

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 11:08 PM, Philip Hands <phil at hands.com> wrote:
> Gordan Bobic <gordan at bobich.net> writes:
>> Sure, but the benefits of that depend on how often you are planning to
>> upgrade.
> ...
> [three current machines described]
>>
>> but even then, the upgrade cycle is unlikely to be shorter than 2
>> years.
>
> I think the real power of this idea will be if it gets to the point
> where people have several EOMA based devices between them and their
> friends/family (with a couple of laptops, a NAS, and/or a plug computer,
> along with something for their Mum, etc).
>
> In that scenario, you get to upgrade your main laptop, give the old card
> to your Mum, take her old one and upgrade your NAS, take that and
> upgrade the plug computer.

 yes.  exactly.

 now.  under what financial circumstances would that kind of idea take
off, in a mass-volume way?  what would cause people to stop thinking
of computers as "monolithic" throw-away consumable items, and start
thinking in terms of saving money in the way you describe, phil?  the
clue is in the rather alarming slow-down world-wide in the purchase of
computers, as people stop buying faster/better upgrades and hold on to
their existing machine for another year.

 so - think "greece" but expand that a bit to where the entire E.U.
goes to shit, and even the cost of transporting whole computers in
containers from china starts to become alarmingly expensive not
because of import duty but because of a spiralling cost of fuel in
transportation of the shipping container.

let's imagine a scenario where in today's money the cost of
transporting a single 100cu.m container costs £500k due to a
combination of $EUR hyperinflation and fuel shortages.  a 100cu.m
container could fit 3,300 *small* desktop PCs in it.  that's an
additional cost of £150 *per PC* in shipping costs.

 if the hard part - the main CPU - is a 55x85x5mm card that can be
simply jammed solid - 400,000 units into a 100cu.m shipping container
- can at least be transported into the E.U. at a reasonable cost, that
would leave the easier part - the creation of the 2-4-layer I/O Boards
and their cases - to be manufactured locally.

 so this whole strategy isn't some sort of "oh yeah it'd be nice if",
there's one hell of a lot going on.

l.