Quanta to manufacture Vodafone-branded netbooks

Vodafone may be about to launch its own branded netbooks in Europe manufactured by Quanta according to NetbookNews.de. Taiwan Mobile is set to do something similar with RoyalTek (a joint venture between Quanta Computer and Acer’s mobile phone manufacturing subsidiary E-Ten). Taiwan Mobile, the nation’s second-biggest telecom operator, is looking to boost data subscription in the face of falling voice usage. “We have been looking into the netbook market for a while. We decided to make our own line in light of satisfactory sales of Acer and Asustek’s models,” Taiwan Mobile’s COO Cliff Lai said recently. It would be no surprise to see European mobile operators doing something similar to gain market share.

The Taiwan Mobile W101 sports a 10.1-inch (1021 x 576) display and is powered by an 1.6Ghz Intel Atom N270 CPU & 945GSE chipset. It also looks to be a light model at 935g. However, it looks like it will be let down with just 512MB RAM and storage of 8GB (SSD). Even with Windows XP, 512MB of RAM may prove to be too low to run smoothly. It also only comes with a 3-cell battery. Other specs include three USB ports, webcam and WiFi (b/g). The model is up for pre-order at NT$6,990 (€159/£143/$200) when signed with a two-year 3G contract with a minimum monthly charge of NT$699 ($20) for unlimited usage. The video below shows a mystery Linpus netbook during CeBIT. It is believed that this is the same as the Taiwan Mobile W101.