What Makes A Cloud Computer?
The relative success and cult-like popularity of Asus' Eee cloud computer has helped raise the level of interest in what's being called a new class of computers. Some call the new machines UMPCs, others have labeled them Netbooks and many are safely labeling them handhelds.
Context & Ripple Effects
The naming fight over the Eee-class machine — UMPC, netbook, handheld, 'cloud computer' — is really a fight over whether cheap, underpowered hardware can be viable when the heavy lifting moves to the network. The category didn't appear out of nowhere: Everex's Cloudbook UMPC running a Google-flavored Linux and the wave of $299 laptops in late 2007 had already established the price point and the cloud-first software model that Asus' Eee then turned into a cult hit.
First-order effects
- Asus gets first-mover advantage in a category it effectively named: the Eee's popularity forces every PC maker to decide whether to ship a low-cost, cloud-centric device or cede the entry-level market.
- Buyers get a new choice at the bottom of the laptop market — machines defined less by specs than by what they connect to — while reviewers and retailers must figure out which shelf these devices actually belong on.
Second-order effects
- Chip and component vendors respond to a new volume segment below the traditional laptop: AMD's push to define its own laptop category shows silicon suppliers racing to serve machines that were never part of their roadmap before.
- Competitors iterate fast on the template — Everex's Cloudbook, Asus extending the Eee brand into desktops with the Eee Box, and by early 2009 a new breed of netbook — compressing margins and accelerating spec churn at the low end.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the industry's center of gravity shifts: the OS and local storage matter less than the browser and the connection, weakening the Windows-Intel grip on entry-level PCs and opening the door to Linux and web-centric platforms.
- The eventual answer to 'what makes a cloud computer' becomes structural — a durable product tier between phones and laptops whose economics depend on cloud services rather than hardware margins.
The trend: This is an early data point in the shift toward cloud-dependent, low-cost client devices — a redefinition of the personal computer around connectivity rather than compute.