From PC World: People everywhere are talking about Apple’s cheaper MacBook Neo laptop. Now Windows is preparing to retake the mainstream laptop market with Project Firefly, inspired by smartphone design.
Firefly aims to deliver characteristics associated with premium laptops like all-metal construction and a clean underside, free of ventilation. Inside sits Intel’s Core Series 3 series, aka “Wildcat Lake,” a chip that Intel re-engineered to remove manufacturing cost, thus lowering the cost of the finished laptop. Intel also showed off a processor module with memory chips designed for phones rather than PC.
“We call it mainstream reimagined,” said Sam Gao, vice president and general manager of Intel’s software and client product group in China. Firefly laptops will be designed for a “day of productivity” for students and consumers, including small business customers.
“About a year ago, a few of us got together and we thought, we have a good recipe for this premium segment of products,” Gao said. “What happened to the more mainstream designs? What if we look at this segment from a new angle, not only competing on how not only how much it costs you to get a system, but what kind of experience you will get? How thin that system can be, how quiet it can be, how long a battery life it can [have]. Let’s do this differently. Let’s reimagine mainstream.”
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