Veracity Nation

With the addition of two relatively new mobile computing product solutions, there have been many who question whether or not it is better to get one over the other.  The two products are, as you might have guessed from the article title, netbooks and the Celio REDFLY™.   If one were to base their decision solely on feature oriented product pricing, one would be missing out on a great deal of unseen costs which lurk in the world of TCO (Total Cost of Ownership).

To get a better understanding of how these costs come up, let us first describe the two options combined with a Windows Mobile (WM) device and then look at the following comparative factors; maintenance, software security, battery life, footprint, ergonomics and finally how they all come together and affect the TCO of each solution.

A brief description of the two should suffice to make the comparative factors understandable.  The netbooks are basically stripped down laptops with a mobile form factor averaging about 9.5″ W x 1.5″ H x 6.5″ L, and screen sizes from ~8″ to ~10″.  Because of this small form factor they do not come with many standard laptop integrated items such as optical drives, Express card slots, Mini-PCI expansion slots, etc…  They do, however, come with USB ports for expandability with any USB devices ranging from full-size keyboards, to webcams (some netbook models have these integrated), external drives, etc…  They have a complete OS software system as with typical laptops, allowing for general usage of on-board software.  The trick with the software usability is that due to the small form factor the memory, CPU and HDD are relatively lower in performance and size as compared to laptops.  As a result, running heavy ended software is not recommended due to the relatively degraded performance.  This is one of the reasons the name Netbook came about refering to a hardware mobile computing platform designed specifically, and primarily for Internet browsing and applications only. 

On to the REDFLY™, a mobile terminal platform for Windows Mobile devices.  The REDFLY™ has a similar small form factor to the netbook coming in at 9″ W x 1″ H x 6″ L with screen sizes from 7″ to 8″.  It has a VGA output like the netbooks, and even a proprietary NTSC/PAL video input to port over video from smaller media player devices like the Zune or iPod Touch.  The REDFLY™ also has up to three USB ports for expandability with USB keyboards, mouse pointers and external USB drives.  The REDFLY™ has no OS system as it is merely porting over the screen and rudimentary functionality from the Windows Mobile device to itself.  That does it for the descriptions, let’s look at the comparative factors:

Maintenance:

When it comes to maintaing workstations there are several tasks tended to, one being security updates which will be dealt with later.  The other tasks are defragging drives, deleting temp files, functionality OS updates, software installations & licensing management, functionality software updates and registry cleaning from poor uninstalls to name just a few.  These tasks are adopted from desktops & laptops to netbooks.  The reason for this is that the Netbook has a full OS system requiring said tasks to maintain maximum performance and functionality.  The REDFLY™ does not suffer from any of these issues, save firmware updates which add software compatiblity for various 3rd party applications as they become available.

Software Security:

As with the factor of maintenance we have a similar scenario with the factor of software security.  Since the netbook has a full OS system and on-board Internet interactive software (Skype, Internet Browsers, etc..) there are inherent security updates needed for the individual softwares as well as the core OS security updates.  With the REDFLY™, again, the only software to be concerned with is the firmware, which does NOT interact with the Internet directly. 

Battery Life:

The battery life of the average stock netbook is ~4-6 hours.  The battery life of the REDFLY™ is 5 hours for the 7″ model and 8 hours for the 8″ model.  It winds up being that the usage of the REDFLY™ can also accomodate charging items like your headset or phone with only the use of 1 AC adapter, the REDFLY™ adapter.  This makes is very convenient to only have to take with you 1 AC adapter in your carying case or bag.  The same can be acheived with the netbooks but not without suffering a much longer charge time on the netbook’s battery.  To get more time between battery charges a larger battery with more cells is usually required for the average netbook.  This of course leads to a bigger overall footprint and weight. More about added weight and footprint size will be covered next.

Footprint:

When considering footprint for this discussion’s purposes, it is more than just the space taken up by the device itself, but also by any accessories necessary for equivalant functionality and weight.  As previously mentioned, although both the netbooks and the REDFLY™ have approximately similar native device dimensions there are some add-on differences.  These are mainly due to larger batteries to acheive similar lifetime between charges as the REDFLY™, and to the power transformers.  The netbook transformers are bulkier, and more clumsy than that of the REDFLY™.   The extra-capacity batteries for the netbooks increase the size, and weight of the netbook.  So, ultimately the REDFLY™ winds up having a smaller footprint on average.

Ergonomics:

When we consider the ergonomics it is also important to consider the efficiency with which one can get up and running from scratch.  Out of the bag or case the REDFLY™ is ready to go in two to three steps depending on whether there is a need to use the AC adapter (third step).  These steps are very quick with the REDFLY™ as the time to bring it up from off state (first step) is instant compared to loading time of netbook OS, either from cold boot, or from hibernation.  After turning on the REDFLY™, connecting to WM device (second step) is a matter of connecting the USB cable or pressing the Bluetooth (BT) button on the REDFLY™ keyboard.  The WM device connection is virtually instant like the turn on speed.

Regarding the comfort aspect of the ergonomics, the netbook and REDFLY™ have similar sized keyboards which may be crampt for some.  The same advantage is available for both though with the ability to use an external USB mouse and/or keyboard.

Combined Effects:

The combination of all of these factors affect the TCO of the netbooks by increasing it because more time is needed for maintenance and security management, more out of pocket expenses for equitable battery lifetime, larger overall footprint due to equitable battery lifetime solutions and reduced ergonomics regarding efficiency of daily startup times.

Conclusion & Recommendations:

One might consider the fact that the TCO is overall higher for netbooks than for the REDFLY™ a reason to claim that the REDFLY™ is always the better choice when considering whether to go with one or the other.   They would be wrong in this assertion.  The fact of the matter is that this comparison was made with a specific solution in mind, that of the netbook or REDFLY™ and a WM device.   For enterprise or small business oriented solutions where WM is being implemented, or should be implemented, the REDFLY™ device is definitely the recommended way to go, barring any needs for webcams or external devices other than drives, keyboards or mouse pointers, e.g. optical drives.  (Regarding webcams, late WM devices and the proliferation of 3G and higher networks will make these needs able to be met with the REDFLY™ WM solution as well.)  When it comes to individuals who do not have WM devices to begin with or have needs for other USB accessories than those covered by REDFLY™‘s USB ports, then the netbook solution would be the way to go. 

Regardless of the scenario, the bottom line is that there is no all purpose winner when it comes to choosing a netbook or REDFLY™ solution.  A correct fit will be based on the specific needs for the end user, not the rouge claims of individuals who assert that there is no market for one product or the other.