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Sony will begin selling its first netbook computer next month and in doing so enter the only sector of the PC market showing significant growth.

The Vaio W is based around a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 processor, the same processor used in many other netbooks.

Like other netbooks the Vaio W has a 10-inch screen, but its display has a resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels rather than the more common 1,024 by 600 pixels. That means more of a Web site can be fitted onto the screen, and the user will have to scroll less, the company said at a launch event in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Sony is planning to use the higher resolution as one of the key differentiators between the Vaio W and other computers on the market. It will also promote the machine’s touch panel, which is about the same size as that found on conventional laptops.

In Japan it will cost around ¥60,000 (US$630), which is roughly in line with netbooks from other Japanese vendors such as Toshiba and Fujitsu but more expensive than machines from foreign companies, such as Dell and Acer. It will go on sale in the U.K., France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Russia from August, and be available via Sony’s online shop. North American launch details have not yet been announced.

The PC industry witnessed a record decline in the first quarter of this year as grim economic conditions caused many consumers and companies to postpone nonessential purchases. Global shipments fell by 8 percent against the same period of 2008, led by a sharp decline in demand for desktop PCs, according to iSuppli. The mobile segment saw 10 percent growth thanks largely to demand for netbook PCs.

Sony came close to launching a netbook earlier this year when it put the Vaio P on sale. The computer is smaller than many netbooks but runs Windows Vista on the more powerful of Intel’s Atom processors. Sony was keen to distance the Vaio P and its higher price from the netbook market.

The Vaio W measures 27 centimeters by 18cm by 2.7cm. It runs Windows XP, comes with 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard-disk drive, two USB ports, 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN and Bluetooth. There’s a camera above the display and a built-in memory card reader.

Despite Advanced Micro Devices’ historical stance that it has no interest in the netbook space, PC makers continue to build the chip maker’s processors into low-cost PCs.

Just two weeks after Acer’s Gateway unit announced an AMD-based netbook, another PC maker on Monday introduced a netbook with a low-power processor from AMD. Medion started selling the Akoya Mini E1312 netbook, which includes a low-power Sempron 210U processor.

The news was first reported by enthusiast Web site Pocket-lint.

AMD in the past has derided netbooks, saying that the PCs were too small and didn’t offer full functionality. Netbooks are typically characterized by small keyboards and screens up to 12 inches. The laptops are designed for basic applications like Web surfing and word processing, and are typically priced starting at US$299.
The company still maintains it doesn’t want to get into the netbook space, but a spokesman was less dismissive of the PC category than AMD has been in the past.
The company’s presence in the netbook space is happenstance, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman. AMD doesn’t want to artificially dictate how PC makers use its chips, and the low-power consumption of Sempron chips could lend itself to netbooks, Taylor said. Sempron chips are low-end chips made by AMD for mainstream PCs.

“We haven’t gone out and built a platform for netbooks,” Taylor said. But the placement of its chips in netbooks is a positive as it offers a greater choice to buyers, Taylor said.

Beyond netbooks, AMD’s low-power chips could also make their way into different form-factor devices like all-in-one PCs, Taylor said.

The Akoya Mini has an 11.6-inch screen and comes with a 160GB hard drive and 1GB RAM. It also includes the M690E chipset with ATI Radeon integrated graphics. The laptop is already available in Germany through Medion’s Web site for €399 (US$557).

The netbook could top the performance of laptops based on Intel’s Atom chips, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst for Insight 64. Atom chips are used in most netbooks today.

“A netbook with a Sempron chip, with a decent integrated chipset and graphics could provide better performance in some applications than Atom,” Brookwood said.

With its chips now in the netbook space, AMD unwittingly competes with Intel and Via, another vendor that sells netbook chips. However, AMD would prefer to focus on developing chips for laptops that deliver better processing and graphics performance, Taylor said.

That’s because AMD runs the risk of deriving lower margins if sales of netbooks with its chip cannibalize higher-priced AMD chips used in products like mainstream laptops, Brookwood said. Intel faces the same risk of generating lower margins when people opt for lower-priced Atom netbooks instead of higher-priced mainstream laptops.

AMD has developed the low-power Athlon Neo chips for PCs called ultrathin laptops, which are pricier than netbooks but offer better processing and graphics performance. The company has already announced a dual-core Neo variant available in Hewlett-Packard’s Pavilion DV2Z laptop. Intel sells low-power consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) chips to compete with AMD in the space.

Despite Advanced Micro Devices’ historical stance that it has no interest in the netbook space, PC makers continue to build the chip maker’s processors into low-cost PCs.

Just two weeks after Acer’s Gateway unit announced an AMD-based netbook, another PC maker on Monday introduced a netbook with a low-power processor from AMD. Medion started selling the Akoya Mini E1312 netbook, which includes a low-power Sempron 210U processor.

The news was first reported by enthusiast Web site Pocket-lint.

AMD in the past has derided netbooks, saying that the PCs were too small and didn’t offer full functionality. Netbooks are typically characterized by small keyboards and screens up to 12 inches. The laptops are designed for basic applications like Web surfing and word processing, and are typically priced starting at US$299.
The company still maintains it doesn’t want to get into the netbook space, but a spokesman was less dismissive of the PC category than AMD has been in the past.
The company’s presence in the netbook space is happenstance, said John Taylor, an AMD spokesman. AMD doesn’t want to artificially dictate how PC makers use its chips, and the low-power consumption of Sempron chips could lend itself to netbooks, Taylor said. Sempron chips are low-end chips made by AMD for mainstream PCs.

“We haven’t gone out and built a platform for netbooks,” Taylor said. But the placement of its chips in netbooks is a positive as it offers a greater choice to buyers, Taylor said.

Beyond netbooks, AMD’s low-power chips could also make their way into different form-factor devices like all-in-one PCs, Taylor said.

The Akoya Mini has an 11.6-inch screen and comes with a 160GB hard drive and 1GB RAM. It also includes the M690E chipset with ATI Radeon integrated graphics. The laptop is already available in Germany through Medion’s Web site for €399 (US$557).

The netbook could top the performance of laptops based on Intel’s Atom chips, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst for Insight 64. Atom chips are used in most netbooks today.

“A netbook with a Sempron chip, with a decent integrated chipset and graphics could provide better performance in some applications than Atom,” Brookwood said.

With its chips now in the netbook space, AMD unwittingly competes with Intel and Via, another vendor that sells netbook chips. However, AMD would prefer to focus on developing chips for laptops that deliver better processing and graphics performance, Taylor said.

That’s because AMD runs the risk of deriving lower margins if sales of netbooks with its chip cannibalize higher-priced AMD chips used in products like mainstream laptops, Brookwood said. Intel faces the same risk of generating lower margins when people opt for lower-priced Atom netbooks instead of higher-priced mainstream laptops.

AMD has developed the low-power Athlon Neo chips for PCs called ultrathin laptops, which are pricier than netbooks but offer better processing and graphics performance. The company has already announced a dual-core Neo variant available in Hewlett-Packard’s Pavilion DV2Z laptop. Intel sells low-power consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) chips to compete with AMD in the space.

A U.S. company will seek legal action against Lenovo, Acer, and Sony next week over their shipment in China of controversial software that the company says stole its programming code.

Solid Oak Software may also take action against other PC makers that have started shipping the software, a company spokeswoman said in an e-mail late Thursday. She declined to give details of the action, but the company previously said it might seek a U.S. court injunction to stop PC vendors from shipping the program.

The software, an Internet filtering tool that blocks pornographic and political content, copied files from Solid Oak’s own Internet content control product, according to the company.

In recent weeks China ordered domestic and foreign PC makers to bundle the software, called Green Dam Youth Escort, with all computers sold in the country. It postponed the requirement just hours before the original deadline this week, but said it did so only because PC makers needed more time to ship the program.

Lenovo, Acer and Sony have all started shipping the program despite the postponement. Lenovo is providing Green Dam pre-installed or on an enclosed disc for most of its computers that support the program, a spokeswoman said.

Sony is including a setup file for Green Dam on its machines that users can choose to activate or remove, a company spokeswoman said. An Acer representative confirmed the company is also including the program with new machines.

Acer and Lenovo were the world’s third- and fourth-largest PC vendors in the final quarter last year, according to IDC.

All three companies declined to comment on Solid Oak’s plans for legal action.

China says it mandated Green Dam to protect children from “harmful” information online. But critics and foreign industry groups have voiced concerns about the program ranging from free speech and user privacy to security and system stability. Users, however, can choose to remove the program.

Whether China will set a new deadline for PC makers to offer the software remains unclear.

On Monday Apple released the MacBook Air SMC Firmware Update 1.2, available now for compatible models via Mac OS X’s Software Update mechanism.

According to Apple’s documentation, “This SMC firmware update adds compatibility for the latest service replacement batteries…. After this update has successfully completed, your SMC Version will be: 1.23f20 [for original MacBook Air models, or] 1.34f8 [for more recent models].”

In general, SMC Firmware Updates update the System Management Controller on Intel-based Macs. The SMC controls power and thermal management features, including the battery and fans. In this case, new replacement batteries from Apple are apparently different enough that they require the use of this updated version of the SMC firmware.

QuickerTek has introduced the Quicky Jr. II, a device purported to triple the wireless networking range of any Mac laptop equipped with USB. It costs $90.

The Quicky Jr. II looks and acts as an antenna. You plug it in to an available USB port on your Mac laptop and install a USB driver. It supports 64 and 128 bit WEP and WPA encryption, and works with 802.11b, g and n networking standards, so it’s fully compatible with the AirPort Extreme Base Station, other Apple networking hardware, and hardware made by other manufacturers.

System requirements call for Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

A long-awaited PC upgrade cycle among small and medium-sized businesses may lie just around the corner, according to an executive at a Taiwanese hardware maker.

The upgrade cycle could begin during the fourth quarter of this year as small and medium-sized companies may start replacing older computers with new ones, driven in part by demand for Windows 7, said Tony Liao, associate vice president of worldwide marketing at Gigabyte Technology, who spoke to reporters during a conference call organized by Intel.

Gigabyte is one of the world’s largest PC motherboard makers and produces a range of products, including laptops and desktops, based on Intel processors and chipsets.

If the promised upgrade cycle does happen, this would be the first widespread PC upgrade to happen in “several years,” Liao said, noting that hardware makers didn’t see widespread PC upgrades during the transition from Windows XP to Windows Vista, which was released in January 2007.

The problem at that time was Vista.

“Windows Vista was not so popular and not so suitable, in general,” Liao said, adding that by comparison Windows 7 should give users more reasons to buy a new PC.

Windows 7 is scheduled for release in October.

That forecast is good news for Intel, which held the conference call to discuss the findings of a research project carried out by Techaisle, which found that more small and medium-sized business are holding onto their computers longer before upgrading them.

Intel, which depends on sales of new computers to generate revenue, would rather see companies upgrade their computers every three years or so. In recent months, the company has tried to encourage companies to buy new PCs by warning that users who don’t will suffer from higher IT maintenance costs, security breaches and more frequent hardware failures.

A long-awaited PC upgrade cycle among small and medium-sized businesses may lie just around the corner, according to an executive at a Taiwanese hardware maker.

The upgrade cycle could begin during the fourth quarter of this year as small and medium-sized companies may start replacing older computers with new ones, driven in part by demand for Windows 7, said Tony Liao, associate vice president of worldwide marketing at Gigabyte Technology, who spoke to reporters during a conference call organized by Intel.

Gigabyte is one of the world’s largest PC motherboard makers and produces a range of products, including laptops and desktops, based on Intel processors and chipsets.

If the promised upgrade cycle does happen, this would be the first widespread PC upgrade to happen in “several years,” Liao said, noting that hardware makers didn’t see widespread PC upgrades during the transition from Windows XP to Windows Vista, which was released in January 2007.

The problem at that time was Vista.

“Windows Vista was not so popular and not so suitable, in general,” Liao said, adding that by comparison Windows 7 should give users more reasons to buy a new PC.

Windows 7 is scheduled for release in October.

That forecast is good news for Intel, which held the conference call to discuss the findings of a research project carried out by Techaisle, which found that more small and medium-sized business are holding onto their computers longer before upgrading them.

Intel, which depends on sales of new computers to generate revenue, would rather see companies upgrade their computers every three years or so. In recent months, the company has tried to encourage companies to buy new PCs by warning that users who don’t will suffer from higher IT maintenance costs, security breaches and more frequent hardware failures.