Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Friday 15 June 2001, 5:45 PM
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Wednesday 13/06/2001
Transmeta's still looking less than stellar, with Intel and others responding aggressively to that company's attempts to take over the low-power Pentium compatible market. No US companies are using the chip in their products, despite much trumpet blowing earlier, but that's OK says Transmeta. It's concentrating on Japan, where it's doing just fine in the superslim notebook market. And where Japan leads, others follow.
Um. That's true, but it's also true that for every idea Japan successfully launches to an avid world there are ten that never get outside the borders of Nippon. Especially in the small and gorgeous gadget stakes; visitors to the country are uniformly amazed at the sheer number and variety of tiny devices, from wrist computers to PDAs you clip on your glasses. Even IBM sells special models of ultraportable PCs over there that you'd think would be winners anywhere, but aren't.
So yes, it's good that Transmeta has found a niche. But it's far from certain it can use that experience and get back on track to total world domination.
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