Quanta Computer has completed the development of a notebook with a thickness of 1-2cm and an entry-level price, according to industry sources.

Quanta is confident about the potential of the notebook, since it features higher quality than Micro-Star International’s (MSI’s) recently launched ultra-thin notebook and is lower priced than Apple’s MacBook Air, two of the product’s major competitors once it launches.

Simon Lin, chairman of Wistron expects the company can still achieve its goal of shipping 25-28 million notebooks in 2009 despite the dropping economy.

However, the company’s revenues are unlikely to see a surge in growth this year, noted Lin, adding that the company will put more focus on managing costs and expanding new product lines to survive the economic crisis.

Advanced Micro Devices’ chief executive predicts that Netbooks will eventually disappear. This thinking, though obviously favorable to AMD’s strategy, isn’t completely at odds with Intel’s.

“The distinction between what is a Netbook and what is a notebook is going to go away,” AMD CEO Dirk Meyer said Thursday in the company’s earnings conference call.

“There will be a continuum of price points and form factors,” he said.

“Given the way Netbooks are configured today, consumers who want a notebook at those kind of (low) price points have to compromise and as a result don’t enjoy a full PC experience, particularly around the graphics and media capability of the machine,” Meyer said. “And likewise people who wanted a thin and light machine had to pay a lot of money, typically well over a thousand dollars.”

Upcoming inexpensive ultra-thin notebooks will meet the need for a small, thin, lightweight laptop that is more powerful than a Netbook, Meyer said. (continuare…)

Although no PC vendor has yet officially confirmed it is planning to produce products based on Nvidia’s Ion platform, according to Nvidia, some PC vendors have adopted the chipset and will launch products by late second-quarter or early third-quarter this year. The company declined to reveal any further details.

Market rumors have suggested Apple is the most likely candidate to get onboard with Ion, but these are unconfirmed as yet.

In order to try and drum up support for Ion, Nvidia has suggested consumers contact their favorite PC vendors asking them when, or if, they plan to release Ion-based products.

Apple Inc.’s  fiscal first-quarter net income rose 1.9% on strong iPod sales, but the company predicted fiscal second-quarter results will be below Wall Street’s expectations.

Apple

Shares initially jumped 9.8% to $90.92 in after-hours trading as the results topped Wall Street’s expectations, but were last trading only 8% higher. The stock price had fallen in the past week on concerns about the health of Chief Executive Steve Jobs.

“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history – surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” Jobs said.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, added in an interview that “we were well ahead of the market, and the response to the MacBook and MacBook Pros were off the charts.”

Apple, considered a bellwether for consumer spending, has shown resiliency to the economy’s problems, as consumers clamored for the company’s newest and hottest items. (continuare…)

AMD has reported fourth-quarter 2008 revenues from continuing operations of US$1.162 billion. Fourth-quarter 2008 revenues decreased 35% compared to the third quarter of 2008 and 33% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007. Fourth-quarter 2008 revenues were down 28% sequentially, excluding third-quarter 2008 process technology license revenues of US$191 million. (continuare…)