Here we are, almost exactly a year later from the introduction of the successful Mobility Radeon 7500, and ATI is right back at it with the Mobility Radeon 9000 (M9). Much has changed across the graphics world in the last year, and the M9 is no exception. Just weeks after the Radeon 9700 Pro rocked the desktop platform, the Mobility 9000 is ready to bring mobile computing to a new level as well.

ATI continues to execute in the mobile marketplace with surgical precision and it shows in their market dominance. They have maintained a strong… no that is too mild… more like utterly commanding market share in the mobile graphics industry. In the last year since the introduction of the MR7500 ATI has only increased that market share, from 38% to more than 44% according to Mercury Research reports. ATI is poised to get the MR9000 onto the market rapidly as well with several launch partners for the MR9000, a number of whom already have notebooks that are close to shipping with the new MR9000 chips! Companies such as Dell, Compaq, Alienware and Medion. That’s a far cry from the 4-6 months it often takes for new mobile tech to make it into actual shipping products.

What has changed in the mobile segment since the launch of Mobility Radeon 7500? The market is moving in two directions and in both cases the direction is away from last year’s rage of thinner/lighter/smaller notebooks. Corporations want notebooks that are fully functional and cheap, and are willing to sacrifice notebook size for it. The other growing market is for super high-end notebooks that can totally replace any desktop. These notebooks pack the biggest monitors, fastest CPUs and largest hard drivers, not to mention the best video chipsets! There is also an emerging notebook niche labeled the desk-note happening primarily in Japan. These notebooks are like high-end notebooks but do not include a built-in battery, they are only meant to be plugged in. This fits into Japanese culture where space is precious and having a powerful, flexible notebook is a great perk.

What does the Mobility Radeon 9000 have to offer these markets?