Everex debuts $399 ultramobile PC at CES

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The Everex PC launch during the holiday season was a big hit at Walmart.com -- it sold out very quickly.

The company is now reportedly planning to launch a cheap ultramobile version computer for $399. They displayed this model at CES and will launch it later this year.

The ultramobile PC called Everex CloudBook will use the open source Linux Operating system and will have gOS based on Ubuntu 7.1 Linux desktop. Though it is called a Google Operating System, it is not endorsed by Google. It will use Linux with all the free Google programs pre-installed on the computer.

The CloudBook has a 1.2GHz C7-M ULV processor, the same as the PC version the company released earlier. The CloudBook will be mainly used for Internet browsing and won’t be suitable for heavy-duty graphic applications.

The ultramobile PC will use the following software or links to the programs' websites: FireFox, gMail, Meebo, Skype, Google Documents & Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, Google News, Google Maps, Wikipedia, Google Product Search, GIMP, Blogger, YouTube, Xine Movie Player, RhythmBox, Faqly, Facebook and OpenOffice.org 2.3.

If you add to the thousands of free programs available on the Web, you can do almost anything that your current computer does without investing heavily on either the operating system or software programs from Microsoft or Apple.

As ZDNet reports:

The unit weighs 2 pounds and is 9.06 x 6.73 x 1.16 inches. It has a 7-inch TFT screen with 800 x 480 native resolution, and has a 30 GB drive and 512 MB of DDR2 533MHz SDRAM. The CloudBook averages 5 hours of battery life with its lithium-ion battery, according to the company, and also includes a 1.3-megapixel Webcam.

For input and output, the Cloudbook includes a DVI-I port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, a RJ45 Ethernet port, headphone/line out jack, microphone/line in jack and 4-in-1 media card reader. For connectivity it offers 802.11b/g and Ethernet.

Apple is also reportedly planning to launch an ultramobile PC, but their version will likely be expensive so companies like Everex and Asus will be doing well in this product area.

Asus is already selling a similar version for $382 at Amazon and it has earned great reviews. This article about Asus shows the direction in which this ultramobile market segment is heading.

I think this ultramobile PC is excellent for families who would like to have an additional computer that won't break the bank, and also for users who would like to carry a PC with them wherever they go.