MSI's new Wind U120 pixellized
Exclusive: In all its glory — We've managed to get our hands on some pictures of MSI's upcoming Wind U120 netbook, or as some like to call it, the Wind 2. Still featuring a 10-inch screen, the new U120 will also be less “cute” than the previous generation as it is oriented at business users.
Context & Ripple Effects
The leaked photos of the Wind U120 land mid-way through the netbook boom's first product cycle. MSI's original Wind proved a low-cost 10-inch laptop could go mainstream, and rivals have been pushing the category outward since — most recently Dell's Inspiron Mini 12, which stretched the screen to 12 inches at the cost of performance. MSI's own follow-up, the U115 Hybrid with its hybrid storage, shows how quickly the line was iterating beyond the first Wind formula.
First-order effects
- MSI is repositioning its flagship netbook away from consumers toward business buyers, keeping the 10-inch screen but trading the original Wind's playful styling for a more sober design — an immediate segmentation of the Wind brand into consumer and commercial lines.
- Business-focused buyers gain a new sub-$500-class option from a vendor that already had credibility with the first-generation Wind.
Second-order effects
- A serious business-netbook push by MSI pressures Asus, Acer, and Dell to field their own matte, conservative variants rather than cede the small-business refresh market to consumer-styled machines.
- The move nudges suppliers toward features businesses demand — docking, manageability, sturdier builds — raising component costs in a category built on razor-thin margins, squeezing pricing across the segment.
Third-order effects
- If business adoption holds, netbooks stop being a toy category and become a legitimate corporate fleet segment — forcing traditional business-laptop vendors (Lenovo, HP) to defend their entry-level lines with cheaper machines.
- Over time this blurs the line between 'netbook' and budget ultraportable, accelerating consolidation of the two categories as screens grow and prices converge.
The trend: Netbooks are maturing from consumer impulse buys into segmented mainstream products, with vendors splitting lines for business and consumer audiences.