MSI Wind U115

There was a rumor going around yesterday that the Asus Eee PC T91 would begin shipping immediately. But as I mentioned yesterday, I’ve received confirmation that the much-anticipated convertible tablet style netbook won’t be available in the US until late July. Asus has also posted a note on Twitter saying the same thing. It’s still possible that the netbook could hit other parts of the globe before the US, but don’t expect to find it anywhere in the states this week.

MSI, on the other hand, will be phasing out a much-anticipated netbook at the end of July. The Wind U115 is the first netbook from MSI with a dual hard drive/solid state disk storage solution. The operating system and some program files can be installed on the SSD, leaving the higher capacity HDD for large media files, documents, and other data. When you’re not using the hard drive, the netbook can shut it off to conserve battery power.

But Microsoft has decided not to offer PC makers low cost Windows XP licenses for netbooks with hybrid storage solutions like this. And that means that MSI has to pay a higher price to put Windows on these netbooks than on most of the company’s other netbooks.

MSI has already produced a number of Wind U115 units, and will attempt to sell them off over the next 6 weeks or so. But an MSI representative told me yesterday that the company will stop selling the netbook in the US on July 31st. I’d already heard that MSI was going to stop production soon, but this is the first confirmation I’ve seen that the netbook will only be available for another month and a half in the US.

The MSI Wind U115 is still available while supplies last from the MSI web store, where you can pick it up for $499.99. I haven’t seen it at any other stores yet, and at this rate I’m not sure I expect to.

MSI is just starting to sell the Wind U115 netbook in some parts of the world, but it looks like the company is preparing to phase this model out soon. In fact, if you want to get your hands on this netbook with excellent battery life and a combo hard drive/solid state disk storage system, you’ll probably want to snatch one up as soon as you can find one because they might be hard to come by as early as July or August.

Why would a company stop production of a brand new model so quickly? In a word: Microsoft. The software company allows netbook makers to purchase low cost licenses for Windows XP to ship with low priced, low power mini-laptops. But Microsoft recently decided that one of those restrictions would be that a netbook could have a hard drive or SSD, but not both. Right now, that restriction only affects one netbook: The MSI Wind U115.

In other words, MSI either has to pay a higher price for Windows XP licenses for this machine than for other netbooks, or the company may have reached a special agreement with Microsoft. Either way, hot on the heels of news that MSI would continue selling the Wind U115 in Germany through October comes a report that MSI could stop production by the end of July at Microsoft’s request.

My guess is that MSI had already begun producing this netbook and wants to at least recoup some of its R&D costs on the machine before phasing it out. But it would have been swell of Microsoft to mention the restriction to MSI before the company developed a mini-laptop with a hybrid storage solution.

Microsoft has apparently told computer makers that machines with hybrid SSD and hard drive based storage don’t qualify for low cost Windows XP licenses. But MSI says that’s not going to affect its decision to sell the MSI Wind U115, which happens to be the only netbook on the market fitting that description right now.

The Wind U115 has just started to go on sale in the US, but it’s been available in Germany for a few months. And Netbook News.de has published a statement from MSI saying that the company plans to continue selling the hybrid netbook in that country through October.

The computer’s somewhat unique storage solution is designed to help extend battery life. The operating system and some programs can be installed on the faster SSD. The larger hard drive provides additional data storage. But when you don’t need to access any of the information on the hard drive, it can stop spinning, saving electricity.

There may be a rumor going around that Microsoft doesn’t want to sell cheap Windows XP licenses for netbooks that offer a dual SSD/HDD storage system. But that doesn’t appear to be stopping MSI from moving ahead with its first hybrid storage netbook, the Wind U115. The company is now taking orders for the netbook on its web page. The price? $499.

While that price tag may seem a bit high at a time when you can buy dozens of netbooks for less than $400, the MSI Wind U115 is somewhat unique due to its combination of a SSD for the operating system, a hard drive for files and data, and a low power Intel Atom Z530 CPU. Basically, the CPU uses less energy than your typical Atom N270 processor, and the hard drive can shut down when you don’t need it.

In some tests, the netbook has run for over 13 hours with a standard battery, and up to 25 hours with a high capacity 9 cell battery. Try doing that with a $300 netbook.

Still, $499 is the price that MSI is charging when you place an order through the company’s website. Perhaps we’ll see this netbook go for a slightly lower price once it’s available through big name retail outlets.

thanks Neel!

Microsoft extended the life of Windows XP in order to give netbook makers a low cost operating system that wasn’t too heavy on resources to run on netbooks. But the company has set some restrictions on the systems that qualify for a cheap Windows XP license, because it wants to keep selling Windows Vista licenses for more powerful machines (and eventually Windows 7 Home Premium).

In order to qualify, a netbook has to have a 10 inch or smaller screen, 1GB or less of RAM, and a 160GB or smaller hard drive. And now it looks like Microsoft may have added another restriction to the list: no dual SSD/HDD storage systems.

Right now that only affects one laptop: The MSI Wind U115, which uses a combination solid state disk and hard drive in order to help achieve battery life of 12 hours or more. But it also means that the new BenQ Joybook Lite U121 Eco announced this week won’t be able to run Windows XP. It also has an optional hybrid storage option. Of course, it also has an 11.6 inch screen, which probably means it wasn’t going to run Windows XP either… but I’m guessing this new restriction, if true could mean that neither the Wind U115 nor the Joybook Lite U121 Eco will be able to run Windows 7 Starter Edition when that operating system is available, and will instead have to use the higher priced Windows 7 Home Premium.

via Netbook Choice