Quick-boot laptops ready for a facelift

IDG News Service - After being hampered by slow adoption, laptops with quick-boot capabilities may soon be upgraded with new features that could make them attractive to users.

Quick-boot capabilities had been on the horizon for years but finally made a splash earlier this year, appearing in many PCs like netbooks sold by Lenovo and Sony. Without loading Windows, users can instantly surf the Web, view digital images or check e-mail just a few seconds after switching on a laptop.

But those PCs haven't found traction yet because in quick-boot mode they can't run all of the applications that work under Windows, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. For instance, in that mode such laptops cannot run media players or Microsoft Office.

Dell, for example, offers the Latitude On quick-boot option in some Latitide laptops that loads a Web browser in a few seconds for users to check e-mail or the latest news. But users want more than just Web browsers on PCs, and so quick-boot can be a nuisance for them, King said. Quick-boot laptops run mostly Web-based applications like Web browsers and are no match for smartphones, which are smaller and can run many of the same Web-centric applications.

King gave the fast boot times a thumbs up, but said usability is a concern with mobile devices like laptops or netbooks with that capability.

"When we get into the mobile Internet devices or netbooks, it's a question of how much nuisance you will put up [with] to gain the greater capabilities of a laptop," King said.

But some companies that make quick-boot software want to reverse that notion by packing in more features while bringing down laptop boot times to just a second. Companies like DeviceVM, which offers the Splashtop software, and Phoenix Technologies, which offers HyperSpace, plan to add support for native applications that enable video editing, gaming and voice-based communication, features that are not yet widely available in quick-boot laptops.

The role of quick-boot capabilities is changing as new operating systems and PC form factors come out, said Gaurav Banga, the chief technology officer at Phoenix. The company wants instant-on laptops to mimic the functionality of smartphones, so the company's focus is on adding smartphone-like functions including voice and gaming applications, Banga said.

But more importantly, Phoenix wants to bring down the boot time for PCs so people can surf the Web or edit documents quicker, Banga said. In previous tests, access to HyperSpace software on a netbook hovered at under 10 seconds after a cold laptop boot. The company wants to try to bring that down to just a few seconds while adding applications that don't drain battery power.