Matthäus Krzykowski and Daniel Hartmann of VentureBeat have managed to get the Asus netbook fully up and running on Android. They even installed nearly all of the necessary hardware including graphics, sound and wireless card for Internet connection. It only took them four hours.
This prototype shows that it can be done; that Android is powerful enough to run on a larger computer. Many people now say that Android netbooks are going to be the next big thing – in the struggling economy a $400 price tag beats an $800 one anytime!
Kryskowski and Hartmann argue that an Android netbook could hit the market in just a few months. Cooperation and collaboration would of course be needed between the device makers and carriers in the Open Handset Alliance. The duo pointed out:
As we evaluate the progress of the various OHA projects, we expect conditions for a mass-market netbook to ripen in 2010, rather than in 2009. Right now a variety of OHA members, announced and unannounced, are working on projects to set up a sufficient ecosystem…. The fact that various OHA partners have already developed Android enough to easily work on our netbook may be considered evidence enough that Google is getting increasing buy-in from industry players to realize this vision.
The programmers said Android has an operating system direction for MIDs or mobile Internet devices, which include netbooks, and that Intel already had the right drivers for MID chips in place. They say 2010 is when we should expect mass rollout of Android netbooks, but 2009 remains a possibility if programmers can replicate Android on netbooks quickly and there are no major bugs.
Kryskowski and Hartmann also commented:
Imagine the billion dollar market at stake here if Google can make good on this vision. Netbooks are basically small-scale PCs. For Silicon Valley myriad of software companies, it means a well-backed, open operating system that is open and ripe for exploitation for building upon. Now think of Chrome, Google’s Web browser, and the richness it allows developers to build into the browser’s relationship with the desktop — all of this could usher in a new wave of more sophisticated Web applications, cheaper and more dynamic to use.
And the programmers also wonder what this will mean for Microsoft. Android and other Linux developments are way ahead of Microsoft Windows in netbook applications.