Nokia and Netbook Mania Dept.: When I first heard about Nokia considering getting into the netbook game, I made an offhand joke that it would be interesting unless the company ran Symbian as the OS. I figured that, like every other netbook, it would be running Windows or Linux. So you can imagine my shock when I was reading an article in which the Nokia folks seem to be indicating their netbook will indeed be running Symbian. What?!? Is the device just going to be a huge phone? It's ridiculous. Stop now, guys, before it's too late! Meanwhile, there's more and more talk on the streets about Google porting its Android OS—actually a specialized distro of Linux—to its own netbook. This makes a lot more sense than using Symbian, that's for sure. If Google puts its resources behind Linux on the desktop, I think we could actually see a platform shift. This would be the time to do it since Microsoft seems to be distracted by both cloud computing and making money selling advertisements. The cash cows are what should be getting the attention, but many companies neglect them. Poor cows. As the netbook scene heats up, you have to wonder: Exactly where is the Sony netbook? The company has released a few smallish machines they say are netbooks, but one, for example, with a Blu-ray drive is $2,700. This misses the point of a netbook, which is the low cost. It should cost about $299. Expect to see some major changes at Sony now that its European boss, Howard Stringer, will be running the whole show, as he got rid of one more top executive. It will be a magic act if Sony can somehow get back into a position of influence. The entire netbook genre had Sony written all over it, but the company could not execute. Kind of like with the iPod and the iPhone. These would have been Sony products in the 1970s.
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