In a recent GigaOm article, Om Malik talks about his experiences using a Netbook. “Netbook” has become the popular term for devices such as the Asus EeePC, the MSI Wind or the HP miniNote. Om tries to use a Netbook for while and has a less than satisfactory experience. He cites some problems with the weight of the device, battery life and heat.

Interestingly, he also mentions boot time:

“It runs Windows XP and no surprise, takes too long to boot up. (There is a Linux version, but I didn’t try that.)”

Recognizing that this is a nascent industry, Om lists 10 things that Netbooks should do. On the top of his list is Instant On. Clearly we agree. If you take into consideration the “use-case” for a Netbook Instant On becomes essential. Netbooks are travelers. They’re going to be turned on and off constantly. The use is not unlike a mobile phone. “I have to get online real quick to get that map” or “what’s my next appointment, again?”

Another of Om’s points really applies to Splashtop:

“7. The primary function of the computer should be cloud-based activities that can include everything from listening to live music, reading blogs and watching videos. Writing research reports or cranking out spreadsheets isn’t the primary purpose of these machines.”

Splashtop is completely geared towards cloud-based activities. Our main application is the Splashtop Browser. More often we recognize internally that getting people online to their web applications quickly and efficiently is our key value proposition. You really can’t underestimate the importance of speed and convenience.

Brad Linder from Liliputing writes a response to Om’s article. While he disagrees with Om on many points, he does give a nod to the suggestion of an Instant On environment in Netbooks. In fact, he goes on to say that he sees the importance of both an Instant On environment and a full-blown OS living side-by-side.

“Not that I wouldn’t love an instant-on machine. But Asus and other PC makers are addressing this by adding “SplashTop” and other feature that let you boot into a Linux-based OS in a matter of seconds and browse the web, use Skype, and do a few other basic tasks. When you need the full operating system, though, it’s nice to know that it’s available.”

At Splashtop, we really believe in this positioning. As I explained in this post, we see ourselves as the perfect OS companion. This is even more true for a Netbook which is ultra-portable, generally has a smaller battery and needs to be constantly turned on and off.

Thanks Om and Brad for a great discussion.

The new Splashtop.com

If you’re reading this on our site you’ve noticed that we’ve redesigned it. If you’re checking us out on a reader, then click here and look at what a beautiful site we have now. Yep, Sergei and the marketing team have been working hard to get us looking slicker, more professional and all around hotter. You’ll notice there’s a bunch more information for you to pour through so that you can know absolutely everything there is to know about Splashtop and the DeviceVM team. I tried to convince our team to put live webcams in their homes but that was unfortunately rejected.

The new Splashtop video

We also created a new video for Splashtop. It’s more professional. Great job Jacob who did most of the heavy lifting. Thanks also to Mazey, who is the new voice of Splashtop. I think you’ll find it entertaining and informative.

The Splashtop Song

Okay, this is kind of a joke. But, Mazey also happens to have an awesome singing voice. So, we convinced her to do a gospel version of the script she was working with on the Splashtop video. Here are the results.

Wouldn’t it be great of your computer turned on like an appliance?

Here at Splashtop we constantly think about how people use computers. The other day, Sergei came across this blog post from HP about just that subject…

The author, Susie Wee, categorized common PC usage into three categories:

1. Computer as a platform
2. Computer as an appliance
3. Computer as a browser

Taking into consideration what we’re doing here at Splashtop, this blog post is really fascinating.

First, with Splashtop, you get to the Internet seconds after you press the power button. The Splashtop browser is based on Firefox 2 with a Flash plug-in, so all popular web sites work perfectly. We also added Skype and IM into the mix, since we believe consumers want a complete internet experience. If you’re one of those people who find yourself using the browser most of the time, Splashtop gives you the best experience.

We also think of Splashtop as an Internet appliance. Appliances (think of a TV set or a stereo) can be instantly turned on or off, are simple to use, and excel at a few tasks for which they are designed. We are really good at getting you online fast just like a toaster is really good at making toast. That’s the way computers should work.

The platform is where Splashtop is different than a traditional operating system. Because we’re focused on getting you online fast and efficiently, we don’t feature a lot of applications that traditional operating systems support. High-end gaming or video production come to mind as applications that rely on a full Operating System.

I’m always asked how Splashtop compares with Windows. I think the goal of Splashtop says it all:

Get you to your favorite web applications seconds after you hit the power button.

It’s hard to get your head around the idea that a “pre-boot” Operating System can momentarily turn your computer into an internet appliance. We see Splashtop as a complementary environment to Windows. Windows and other Operating Systems like Ubuntu and OSX provide an application platform. If you want to play that high-end game, for instance, you’re going to need that traditional operating system.

Thanks to Susie Wee at HP for the insightful post.

Once again the DeviceVM team is at a conference and left me behind. They told me I had to “hold down the fort” or something. In between long lunches and hour long sessions of Guitar Hero, I thought I should put up a little post about Computex. After all, we’ve had some pretty impressive announcements as of late. First, we’re on millions of motherboards. Next, we’re launching on Notebooks.

My trusty friends, Sergei and Kevin have reported a lot of interest in our quick booting, web-centric environment. They say that our portion of the Asus booth is pretty full most of the day and that everyone wants to try out Express Gate (which is what Asus calls Splashtop). Here are some awesome pics from the booth. Thanks Sergei and Kevin - keep the pics coming!