It seems that everybody is getting in on the netbook action, and Ericsson is no exception. The company today is launching its latest mobile broadband module specifically designed for netbooks.
“We realize the netbook market is more or less exploding,” says Mats Norin, vice president of Ericsson Mobile Broadband Modules in Sweden. Between now and 2014, Ericsson expects more than 300 million netbooks will be sold, and a majority of them will have broadband capabilities, he says.
The HSPA module that Ericsson provides is what makes the netbooks capable of connecting with the wireless network. But netbooks include a lot of different components, similar to an automobile. So if Ericsson is providing the engines, then Intel is providing the transmissions, and the two worked closely together so that the netbooks will come out at an affordable price.
One of the keys to making the devices affordable and consumer-friendly is making sure the netbook goes into sleep mode very quickly and comes out of sleep mode as fast as possible, Norin says.
Ericsson is working closely with Intel to validate the F3307 mobile broadband module with Intel’s next-generation netbook platform, Pine Trail-M.
The module will be made available in August, and products with the module will likely come to market in the third or fourth quarter. Ericsson isn’t naming any laptop manufacturers that might be using the module. It currently supplies notebook modules to the likes of Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and LG.
Ericsson says it also pre-approved its modules with mobile operators in more than 75 countries, allowing netbook manufacturers to cut the product launch phase by shortening the final certification process.