http://liliputing.com/2015/04/asus-zenfone-2-with-4gb-ram-128gb-storage-comin...

Asus Zenphone 2 is coming out in India this week with a hundred and twenty eight gigabyte (yep, 128 gig) cell phone with 4 gigs of systems memory.    

Well, I think the first chapter in the Chrome Wars is about over .... very soon MS and/or Google are going to drop new OS products on the market that will supersede this 2012-2015 conflict with a new one that will match up with the new crowd of super-processors being released for 2016.

Not that ChromeOS itself will disappear, no I think Chrome might be combined with other things and perhaps be called something else but I do believe the light fast net-based format and function of ChromeOS will survive ongoing.

The net is becoming pervasive and so is public Wifi as a means of getting on the web.  

I carry a web based Wifi based combo phone now and I suspect my next desktop hardware might indeed be based upon my then current cell phone (next time I buy a cell phone anyway).

So, where are we right now -- at the end strokes of the traditional Chromewars.

Google has been distracted and tied up in EU court over "Google taking over the world" thanks to MS's behind the scenes maneuvering.   This is intended to forestall any new unified Google OS as that would be seen as more "taking over the world" again -- meanwhile MS has "protected" their necessary needed time to finish up Win10 finally.

(I mean really, Win9 is only 3 years late at this point and it has gone through two whole number/name changes without ever hitting reality).

MS is choking on itself, piling up more and more and more processor and memory intensive features into the Win10 PC release for this late Summer (assuming it actually does go real at that point in time) .....

..... while Intel is choking on itself trying to make a faster/cheaper chipset to move the new MS massive behemoth "quickly and cheaply".   Intel is not making sufficient progress on this goal right now and Intel has Apple, MS and lots of other different customers strongly irritated with Intel at the moment because of all the 14nm screw ups and delays.

Chromebooks are still doing well, sitting at 15% of all laptop sales and the Chromebook raw quantity number is still doubling every year or fairly close to it, and the Chromebook phenomena is now moving on out into all the foreign marketplaces driven by the same things that made it so successful in America.  

Yep, I think 2015's Chromebook "doubling" will HURT Microsoft, a lot .... that would be a significant market share loss for MS since recent history says those that go Chromebook tend to not come back to MS, ever.

The current Chrome Wars price point is at $149 with some plans leaking out to take it down to $129 if that becomes necessary.   That is if MS ever actually makes it all the way down to $149 point in the first place -- they haven't really gotten all the way down to $149 yet you know .....    


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So, how happy are people with Chromebooks vs MS Windows?  Currently, I mean.   Right now.   Reality speak.  Factually.

http://au.pcmag.com/feature/28623/readers-choice-awards-2015-laptops-and-desk...



What I find interesting that the items that the people like most about Chromebooks will not be changed at all by the Win10 roll out -- indeed the "items they like" may get exaggerated some more by MS's ongoing flaws by the time the first "pay me" bill for Win10 hits the public's pocketbooks and the "I told you so" outrage starts.

You see, MS is playing a game right now, they are going to push Win10 "for free" just as hard as they can in 2015-16 to try to gain back market share that they have lost in the various world markets -- then later on the "pay me" bill will eventually be presented in the next version, once the public is fully hooked on Win10 and "can't live without it" all over again.


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Here is my prediction .....  MS is seen as a desktop/laptop operating system.   Cell phones are getting ready to take over a large chunk of that desktop real estate going forward into the future.   Right now MS only owns right at 3%-4% of that cell phone market share.

MS might win in desktop, but desktop is going to shrink to be an incidental marketplace fairly soon, occupied only by CAD and other forms of workstations in a work a day world.   Yeah, maybe an AAA game or two, gotta leave room for that you know.  

But desktop PC will shrink to wind up being a 5%-8% of total computing within 4 years, unless Win 10 is fantastically successful and turns the trend completely around.

People will carry cell phones in their purses and pockets that can light a screen when they are sitting at home, either cordlessly or from a docked connection (ya still gotta charge the thing, right?).  

What that particular OS is going to be called is still yet to be determined.

      ..... Apple iOS and Android are the two most likely brand names right now, really.    Once they light your big screen you might call them OSx and ChromeOS since they will likely be able to morph to fit the environment on the fly.

And yes, MS will be there too, at a much smaller percentage.

Face it, people currently do not prefer MS Phone over Apple or Android phones right now and I can't see that preference changing radically in the short term future.

And I also don't see people rushing to throw away old desktop PC hardware at the moment either -- Desktop Linux has jumped from 1.4% to over 3% of the total existing population of x86 machines which is a pretty significant pick up in Linux only boot sectors.

(not dual boot machines either, as they are reported as Windows units -- 3% now are pure Linux machines)

Meet the Asus Zenphone 2, the first Intel processor, built to dock cell phone.





Why built to dock?   All controls are on the back of the phone and the top of the phone, nothing on the sides and just the USB to go port on the bottom for easy docking.   Everything is set up so you can use all the hardware controls while the phone is docked.

4 gigs of systems memory, 32 to 64 to 128 gigs of flash drive memory, a current state of the art Intel processor means this puppy was built for Win10 all the way.

Right now the phone is out although Win10 isn't ready yet by any means (and Win10 phone will not be ready until next year according to current rumors).

Asus, you are way way early to the party buddy.

This phone way way exceeds the original Shuttleworth Edge specs, on all parameters.

ARM has already made a PRO-ACTIVE forward motion plan (Ares, Prometheus, Artemis, Ananke, Mercury)  for squelching both Intel Skylake and Intel Cannonlake as they were originally concepted (as strongly improved products) --- and ARM has vendors Mediatek and Samsung actually rolling this pro-active plan out starting this fall.

Meanwhile, 14nm Intel has thermally imploded and Intel has no Skylake to hit reality until supposedly sometimes next year .... and Intel's 10nm Cannonlake is likely to lag yet a year further behind than that.

Meanwhile, Samsung will be producing 10nm A-10 and A-10x chipsets for Apple this summer and this fall and all this winter.  

And they will make a few for themselves every now and again, of course .....   powerful lower cost RISC chipsets at 10nm lithography swinging improved data busses and much better graphics according to the ARM specs just released.

Meanwhile, MS is busy trying to learn how to ARM itself against Intel's current 14nm implosion so as not to delay their Win10 roll-out for another whole year.


    Ah, this computer stuff is such fun to watch all fumbling and writhing and stumbling over itself.   Apple is forcing Intel to TRY to meet their commitments, making Intel produce and sort then scrap the lot after lot after lot of not-quite Skylake chipsets (which Intel will then rename as something or other and then eventually dump them off on YOU, their ever faithful Intel fans).



    "Hey man, Intel has a really great sale on 100x turbo whatchamacallits, only $1,450 for the chipset and a FREON-intercooler insulated NUC case set up using the NUC motherboard of your choice -- hell, that's a steal and a half man, a FREON cooled 14nm Intel whatchamacallit rig for only $1,450 --- it kicks some serious Apple arse it does, makes applesauce out of the very best Mac rigs.  

No, man -- it's like a special processor run, and when they sell them all that's it, no more ever again.  Just think of it man, your own personal supercooled supercomputer ....  really rocks, huh?

No, to get the full turbo speed you have to keep the entire Mobo inside of the insulated case down at -40^oF or lower using the freon compressor rig to cool it way way down, makes the electrons flow better, I guess -- rad man, really rad.   It has like frost on the case all the time.  

Hey, I betcha you can't lick the metal rim on the case, dude ..... no, really,  just stick your tongue out and touch it to the metal.   <snort>  <snort>  <snort>



.... yeah, man, it can even chill your beer for you in just a minute or so, just set the can inside the deep cup holder recesses up on top of the case.   Yeah, I love that Budweiser logo stenciled on the sides of the case too, man."


    That's some sick Intel humor, a young Joe Sixpack buying a new thermally challenged processor just because Intel has put it on sale.   But the fanboy stuff reads sorta true .....

So they minimize the size of the electronic s and then have to add acubic foot of cooling equipment?

Prediction:

As I watch Ubuntu and MS and others struggle to be the first to release a phone that will dock into giving a PC like experience, I wonder when Apple and Google will simply build the trick into their OS such that it is a common feature.  Or, to save space, make it a free downloadable app.

That would be a right MS killin' thing to do, you know -- buy a new phone, get a free PC for -- free -- one that you already know how to use.

Qualcomm's overheating/throttling 810 processor first revision 1.0 is history -- replaced by version 2.0 which cuts the thermal throttling problems down by at least half.

Be aware that the issue here really belongs to TSMC who built the 810 chip on its custom designed proprietary 20nm process.

And it becomes obvious just who TSMC was benchmarking some of their tech from when they built that 20nm process.

Also note that Qualcomm's next phone processor generation will be actually built at Samsung -- Qualcomm isn't stupid -- TSMC has issues just keeping up with the technology curve in more ways than just one.

AS WE GET SMALLER and smaller and the traces and gates get half sized, then quarter sized, expect thermal throttling to become more of an issue for EVERYBODY.

Cutting down on the required voltages will become a key to future shrinkage.   You can't keep the same 5 volts or even the new 3 volts, you need to drop to as close to 1.5 volts as you can for all functions as this 1.5 volts will be the required 10nm voltage and all the "future forward" voltage functions need to get down to this level asap.

       fun, ain't it?   Get them new 1.5 volt basebands and LTE radios into the FCC for testing/approval NOW or you will be left behind.


I can remember when Intel was Sooooo Proud that their traces and gates were all a "true 14nm size" throughout, while lambasting everybody else in ARM land because their traces were fatter and they only really got close to 14nm when it got right at the FinFET gate areas.

Now Intel is bleeding heat energy off everywhere inside their chips and having severe thermal throttling issues and the ARM guys are mostly just marching along just fine with their "fat" 14nm traces (with no fins on their chips either).

http://liliputing.com/2015/05/chip-mini-pc-runs-debian-linux-costs-9-sort-of....

..... and the next thing is a $9 computer.





"OK, so what exactly is a CHIP?

Its a short video, click on it .....     http://liliputing.com/2015/05/chip-mini-pc-runs-debian-linux-costs-9-sort-of....

It’s a single-board computer with a 1 GHz Allwinner R8 single-core processor based on ARM Cortex-A8 technology. It has 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 4.0 and composite video output.

The system is designed to run Debian Linux and it can run modern desktop apps including LibreOffice, VLC, or the Firefox or Chrome web browsers. Not only does it run free and open source software, but the developers say the hardware schematics, PCB layout, and other details will all be available for anyone to download or modify."


My read?   Raspberry Pi 2 is a far better deal for the dollars spent.  Faster, quad core processor and MUCH better OS support and tons of freebies developed for it already.