Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.
FROM THE TRENCHES
The Rise of Ultrabooks: Top Technology Initiatives
B Randy Johnston
Mr. Johnston is executive vice president and partner of K2 Enterprises and Network Management Group, Inc. He is a nationally recognized educator, consultant and writer with over 30 years' experience. He can be contacted at randy.johnston@cpapracticeadvisor.com.
8 March 2012 M
ack in 2007, the EEE series from ASUS, the netbook line, was released. It was exactly what people needed at the moment: something small, portable, light, and it could run Windows or Linux. Even if it was slow, all they wanted to
do were basic computing tasks. After the release of the EEE series netbook, people instantly wanted more performance out of this new line of laptops.
To handle the need for perfor-
mance, the processor for the net- books would just keep get ing a small performance boost each release before fi nally get ing a second pro- cessing core. This helped, if you
wanted to run Windows XP on one of the devices, but with the release of Windows 7, XP was to be no more. If there is any indication that net- books had an impact on the com- puter world, the release of Windows 7 Starter edition was a good show of that. T is version of Windows was built to limit how many open applica- tions a user could have. To get around this, the computer industry would have to redesign the compact laptop industry again. T us, the entry of Ultrabooks. Ultrabooks typically have a lighter weight of less than three pounds, a solid state drive (SSD), and have the ability for an instant on. Before jumping into Ultrabooks
too far, one other computing revolu- tion needs to be mentioned: the rise of the tablet. Whether you consider the market leader Apple with their iPad and iPad 2, other notable business competitors like the Sam- sung Galaxy, RIM Playbook (Blackberry), the Motorola Xoom, or the personal tablet off erings like the Amazon Kindle Fire, each tablet has features that make them useful tools.
March 2012 • www.CPAPracttiiceA A .CPAPracticeAdvisor.com
Instant on, touch screen naviga-
tion, web browsing, and the ability to answer email, take a few notes and consume content of all kinds have made the category of tablets a notable force. In preparing this article for you, research did not
ULTRABOOKS TYPICALLY
HAVE A LIGHTER WEIGHT OF LESS THAN THREE POUNDS, A SOLID STATE DRIVE (SSD), AND HAVE THE ABILITY FOR AN INSTANT ON.
produce reliable numbers of tablets delivered from diff erent providers, but Apple has sold well over 50 million units, Samsung has sold over 10 million units and Amazon has sold over 5 million units. What type of computers are
Ultrabooks, and why are they important? At the 2012 International CES show, over 25 new Ultrabooks were shown. Older laptops that fi t in the Ultrabook format and type are the MacBook Air and Samsung Series 9 type of laptops. T ey are very light, very thin, and most important they have a full processor, not an Intel Atom. With the advances in processor technology, companies can now have extremely thin laptops without giving up on performance. Steve Jobs made sure everyone