Lenovo’s Ideapad S12 ION to launch after Windows 7 release
August 20, 2009 at 11:30 pm
The Lenovo Ideapad S12 ION netbook was one of the first netbooks to be announced with Nvidia’s ION wizardry. However, since its announcement back in May, we’ve not heard too much about the ION version (the Atom and VIA SKUs are already out). Indeed, the Samsung N510 has stolen much of the ION momentum away from the S12 ION.
Gizmodo now has word that the S12 ION will not ship until Windows 7 has launched i.e. it will launch after October 22nd. This means it will be able to use the newer OS that should deliver better performance than the Vista version it was planning to ship with. No firm date was given, but it is expected to retail for $550, around $50 more expensive than the standard Atom SKU.
They were also told that a HP ION netbook is also due in the coming weeks. Looks like everyone wants to jump on the ION bandwagon.
August 21st, 2009 4:19 PM
Why?
They could easily release the unit before for us Ubuntu users out here – maybe even do it with a “Revision 1” unit and get the results back for the next batch.
It almost seems like they (Lenovo + Samsung?) have made a deal under the table with Microsoft to wait with the release to get people to associate something positive with Windows 7 – or am I wrong?
– Lars
August 21st, 2009 5:11 PM
Everyone wants to jump on the ION bandwagon, noone wants to release their products…
September 28th, 2009 12:06 PM
Lars, maybe they are waiting because they want people to use a real operating system on the machine?
October 18th, 2009 2:59 PM
Ubuntu is great as a freeware alternative, but selling netbooks/notebooks or any computer for that matter with an MS operating system gives the illusion of getting more for your money, as the purchase price of the hardware includes the OS, naturally.
So, you either buy a 550$ netbook with ubuntu installed, OR, you buy a 550$ netbook with Win 7 installed (and if you want Ubuntu, install it after).
That said, they could have gone down the route of the original netbooks, selling linux based machines for a whole lot less than XP based netbooks, but I think the point has been made, and is most likely correct, that if they’ve been putting Win 7 onto the machines, they NEED to wait for the official launch of Win 7 before releasing their laptops. That’s a legal thing and a deal thing for certain.
I personally prefer the wait, as I’d prefer Win 7 to Win Vista – I.M.O, Win 7 is what Vista always should have been.