Just last week we heard of Dell's upcoming Latitude On feature, which allows you to immediately access certain applications on your computer upon opening your notebook, effectively bypassing the Windows boot up process. Powered by Intel, this Latitude On feature was designed and implemented by Dell. At the time, I noted the probability that some larger companies will create such features in-house and provide some competition for software makers like DeviceVM, the maker of Splashtop.
That's not to say that the smaller software makers are down and out - in the world of capitalism, competition makes the world go round. And now Splashtop, the company that provides the instant-on application for computers that would like immediate access to things like the Internet, has an additional $15 million to keep the competition going. This Series C round of funding was led by New Enterprise Associates, Inc., with existing investors Storm Ventures, DFJ Dragon, Tim Draper and Larry Augustin also participating in this round.
To make Splashtop's position even greater, the company has partnered with HP on select notebooks and has more PC manufacturer partnerships in the works. In conjunction with Splashtop's funding announcement, we also learn that ASUS has chosen to extend its partnership with Splashtop for the use of its instant-on environment capabilities. ASUS will be using Splashtop for its Eee Box B202 Nettop computer, which is a desktop version of its low-cost notebook that was introduced last year. As an alternative to some of the larger brands, ASUS is pushing to differentiate its position with the inclusion of Splashtop's instant-on ability to bypass the boot-up process.
