Intel is hoping for its new processor to help stimulate further development of the netbook platform, which was once the fastest rising new device category. Things have changed since the release of Apple’s iPad; some new Android 3.0-running tablets, which have just started to hit the market, also represent a threat.

New netbook designs, based on Atom’s architecture are currently being developed by ASUS, Lenovo and Samsung. The companies use CeBIT to show netbooks based on the recent dual-core Atom for netbooks.

MeeGo wants this software to be utilized by developers and device vendors to create software for multiple device categories on ARM7 and Intel Atom architectures.

Included in the release is Core OS 1.1. Netbook UX 1.1 offers a set of core applications for netbooks, Handset UX 1.1 with basic UX for voice calling, IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) UX 1.1 with a sample home screen and taskbar built with Qt 4.7 and speech recognition, web browsing, SMS messaging, photo viewing, connection management, video and music playback. The SDK 1.1 Beta will be ready for the MeeGo Summit conference that will take place in Dublin.

The one-year anniversary of Windows 7 was on the same day Microsoft stopped allowing Windows XP to be preloaded on new PCs. The simplest version is Windows 7 Starter and it is largely preloaded on netbooks and notebooks instead of XP, while Vista is no more an option.

Windows XP was the cheapest operating system for the platform and this helped it to maintain its position in the netbook market. Its price is $15 per netbook, while Vista and Windows 7 Starter cost at least $30. Microsoft is supposed to have dumped the price of XP in order to force Linux to leave the netbook market, which was earlier dominated by platforms independent from Microsoft.

In Intel’s view, Apple was not a destroyer but a catalyst. The company does not plan to make truly long-lived and thin tablets until next year, but expects to be competitive with Android, Windows and MeeGo tablets. It stated that any inactivity in 2010 would soon generate sharp competition from makers of ARM-based tablets like Apple.

The company said that tablets were exciting devices and it welcomed their appearance. It also added that Apple had to be praised for its wonderful initiative of reinventing this category.

Intel said that it would be great to have the best computing architecture and complete global scale. These statements were contradicted by many Atom-based tablets having half the battery life of what the iPad has or even less. They are also slower due to their slower Intel graphics and too many resources demanded by Windows 7.

Intel said during the call that while Atom was down, notebook processor sales were up. Sales have mainly decreased in the United States and countries of Western Europe, both territories being known as bases of iPad sales, but it was not very obvious how much the effect of Apple had influenced them. Analysts of the NPD Group have shown that about 13 percent of computer sales may have gone to iPad buyers.

As an illustration, Best Buy reported that netbook sales were dropping by up to half in those stores where there were iPads on sales.

Acer’s executive was however cautious about the future, as he said netbooks would probably not gain any share in 2011, although Acer expected to reap benefits. As Dell and Hewlett Packard are not believed to push as hard for sales as they did before, only ASUS would claim the largest part of what would remain.

Reports from the same area contradicted Lin’s sayings the very same day. PC makers and resellers are dropping netbooks’ prices as a reaction to the iPad. For example, the Android and Windows dual-booting netbook of Acer, the Aspire One D255, has now a price of $288 equivalent, lower than before. The 10-inch Lenovo IdeaPad is now $317, while the ASUS 10-inch Eee PC has also dropped the price and costs now $282. Only a few systems, which are not completely new, have now prices exceeding $320.

Acer’s faith in the Atom N550 was also disputed, because many companies were not promoting the faster processor actively.

Other signs also contradict Lin’s beliefs. For instance, Best Buy has noted a drop in netbook sales by about half after the iPad’s intention of expanding sales to all its chains. Analyst Kathy Huberty from Morgan Stanley also noted that growth has reversed in the United States starting more or less in April, when the iPad debuted.

There is also another reason for postponing the launch. The Atom N550 processor which is coming will cost $10 to $20 more than the currently used N455/N475 processors. Its launch is believed to make buyers neglect the Celeron-based notebooks which are comparable as price and performance.

Both companies and Toshiba as well have cut the prices for slow-selling of their ultra-thin notebooks in order to boost demand.

If Dell adopts Chrome OS, it would be a serious blow for Microsoft. Dell is already using Ubuntu Linux on a number of netbooks. The new platform is supposed to offer a higher-profile operating system which could significantly determine a reduction of the Mini netbook’s price. Although Chrome OS requires SSD storage, it has a quite small footprint and is depending on web applications and therefore can use cheaper drives than the conventional hard drives. It also uses less memory as most tasks occur within a single application.

As a justification of Dell’s leap to Google, Midha invoked a new stage of computing. He said that unique innovations are expected in the next two or three years, which would involve new forms of computing. The company is committed to be on the forefront and to be a leader whether it entails Chrome or Android.

Amit Midha also suggested more China-native Android-based phones would arrive. For example, a 3G phone for the native TD-SCDMA format of China Mobile is expected to appear sometime later this very year.

A part of this increase is due to minor specification boosts, because existing netbooks have 16 to 32GB SSD drives or hard drives from 160 to 250GB and 512MB to 1GB of RAM. They run Windows usually and use Linux at the very low end.

The N550 processor should have a clock speed of 1.5GHz and 1M of cache memory, but would only require 8.5W of power at its thermal peak. This would make it require only slightly more battery power than single-core Atom architecture. The N550 will equip typical netbooks that have screen sizes up to 10.2 inches.

She also added that the iPad has a high potential for competing other categories too. Notebooks seem to be the most likely to be affected, as 44 percent mix of Windows notebooks and MacBooks are at risk. At the same time, 44 percent of iPod touch buyers are supposed to switch to the iPad. A significant part of up to 28 percent of the e-readers market is also vulnerable, while sales of desktops and game consoles are the least affected and are not supposed to lose an important number of customers.

Part of the drop in netbook sales growth in the first month of the year can still be attributed to the post-holiday usual drop-off in sales and to a maturing market, as many of the people already having a netbook did not see a reason to upgrade. The decline in March and April, however, was obviously influenced by the iPad launch, since many customers have reconsidered their plans of buying netbooks after this event and made the decision of buying an iPad instead.

The initial iPad offering is situated outside of the majority of the netbooks range. Its least expensive models occupy the high end of a field where $300 and $400 systems are very common. Additional features as an e-reader and game system definitely work to its advantage. The iPad can be less expensive for customers who want to have simultaneously a handheld device and a netbook-class device.

The iPhone also influenced carrier loyalty, as AT&T, despite its well-known call quality problems, was also ranked first in the carrier loyalty section.

Only a few companies succeeded to win. Samsung was first as having the most widespread leadership. It tied for Acer in the netbooks section and either led or tied for the lead in LCD and plasma HDTVs. Canon tied in both the DSLR and compact camera sections.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, it got few wins but managed a tie in web searches through Bing, which tied with Google although it had less than a year of existence.