Posted on Thursday, March 12 2009 @ 1:35 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
DigiTimes
reports Foxconn is participating in VIA's strategic alliance to sell whitebox netbooks in the Chinese market. The alliance is named Global Mobility Bazaar (GMB), their first whitebox netbooks are expected in May. These 10" netbooks will be cheaper than similar systems from other vendors, and next year the average selling price (ASP) is expected to drop to 1,499 RMB (roughly $219).
The group is also planning products with panel sizes larger than 10-inch.
Market watchers forecast white-box notebook shipments to reach 30 million units in 2009, accounting for 20% of global shipments, but VIA believes the volume should reach 50 million units with the addition of shipments from handset vendors.
GMB is also considering adopting Linux- and Android-based platforms.
VIA commented that the limitations of ARM processors in regards to standard software compatibility will create difficulties for an ARM-based netbook.
