Netbooks Have a Huge Impact On the PC Industry

Xbm360 writes "A report from researcher Canalys said 13.5 million netbooks were sold globally in the 1st half of 2009. Telecom companies have several bundling deals, with about 50 operators selling netbooks. The success of netbooks also surprised Microsoft & forced them to lower the prices of their XP Home licenses, to regain marketshare over Linux."

Comments

It's fairly obvious why they are so successful...

[TheKidWho]

You don't need the latest CPU or graphics chip when all you do online is watch porn.

A netbook does fine, heck you can even hold it up with one hand while keeping the other busy!

Re:It's fairly obvious why they are so successful.

[fredjh]

I wouldn't have stated it that way, but I agree... people are realizing the race for powerful chips now exceeds the necessity of most people by magnitudes; most people just want to stay in touch and have access to the web. Even the usual word processing and home finance applications, which few average-Joes actually even use anyway, don't require squat for processing.

There was a netbook on display at Sam's Club that had a "is a netbook right for me" app running on it, so I took the test... the first question is if it was going to be your primary computer, and I said "yes," which ended the test with "this isn't powerful enough for your main computer, and the keyboard and display are too small!!!"

When I use a laptop as my "main" computer I don't like the keyboard or display, either... both external. Same thing I'd do with a netbook. I don't see the problem.

Warning

[mcgrew]

TFA is one of those that have a big photo, very little text, and is continued on page 2 (of how many I don't know; I refuse to slog through sites like this).

Re:Warning

[leromarinvit]

And this is what happens to people who serve big photos to Slashdot:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@itrunsonlinux.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2 Server at eeepc.itrunsonlinux.com Port 80

No, this is what happens when you run your web server on an Eee PC.

Re:Taken with a grain of salt

[Karganeth]

What were you in your former life? A library?

9" linux netbook was perfect

[sakdoctor]

I bought a 9" model with linux earlier this year.
Soon after, the linux models dried up, then the prices rose and the screen size crept up.

I should have bought 6 at Jan 2009 price. Baring a change of architecture which increases the battery life 5 fold, I conciser it to be perfect.
It doesn't need any more power because it does everything that I want from a computer the size of a hardback book.

Re:9" linux netbook was perfect

[Rudeboy777]

Seconded - I don't know if the model you bought was the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, but I bought this in March/09 and the went EOL shortly after. A contact in the industry (very large national reseller) says there is a concerted effort coming from OEMs and Intel to bump up screen size, features, but most importantly *PRICE* on netbooks and this very much appears to be taking place looking at today's offerings compared to what was available at the start of the year.

Seems the early Atom netbooks (as opposed to the earlier Asus eeePC with a Celeron CPU) did a little *TOO* good a job of providing everything you need for $300 or less.

Re:Taken with a grain of salt

[yincrash]

a slashvertisement for who exactly? i'm not a major university, but i do have netbook running archlinux

Kind of obvious

[Animats]

So we have a story about a press release about a report by some unknown company. Big deal.

This is an important subject, though. The big issues are 1) will "netbooks" wipe out the notebook industry, 2) will "netbooks" become slaves to mobile phone companies, like handsets, 3) will Microsoft succeed in enforcing their ceiling on how powerful a netbook can get. The story addresses none of those issues.

The fascinating thing, and one that cries out for some good journalism, is how effectively Microsoft squashed the Linux netbook industry. The first netbooks all ran Linux. Eighteen months later, it's very hard to buy a Linux netbook. How did Microsoft get Chinese consumer electronics manufacturers to pay for a OS when they had successful products with a free one?

Re:Kind of obvious

[TheKidWho]

Technology doesn't move technology, the market does. People wanted windows xp on their netbooks and they got it.

Re:Kind of obvious

[TheRaven64]

How did Microsoft get Chinese consumer electronics manufacturers to pay for a OS when they had successful products with a free one?

Very easily. An OEM install of XP costs around $45. This is a lot when you are aiming for a $200 RRP; it's over 25% of the wholesale cost. Microsoft introduced a $15 license that is only valid for machines with specifications below a certain ceiling. I can't remember exactly what these are, but you can find them if you Google (single-core CPU with a maximum speed, 160GB hard disk or smaller SSD, 1GB RAM and so on). Linux isn't free, once you factor in the cost of producing a custom version tailored for your device, and so the cost savings are probably closer to $10, and 'runs Windows' is worth $10 to the average consumer so the manufacturers went this route. Expect this to change with the ARM-based devices, which are expected to be much cheaper and (obviously) won't run Windows. It remains to be seen whether they will sell well.

Re:Kind of obvious

[jedidiah]

No. Microsoft can't tolerate competitors. So they stopped
trying to IGNORE the product that people wanted. This
product was cheap small laptops. XP really had nothing to
do with it. Once netbooks took off, it was just another
market segment that Microsoft could muscle into.

They used XP because it was the only thing they had that fit.

Like always they were "last to the party". So their current
product was woefully inappropriate.

Linux alters the power dynamic of the OEM+Microsoft relationship a bit.

Re:Kind of obvious

[TheKidWho]

And the reason XP netbooks are selling significantly better than Linux netbooks is because Microsoft held consumers at a gunpoint and forced them to.

Right.

Re:Kind of obvious

[Tweenk]

Maybe the real reason is that Linux versions are no longer in stock because of MS pressure?
How am I supposed to buy something that is not even offered to me?

Re:Taken with a grain of salt

[just_another_sean]

Yeah but he *is* a major university. I'd say his data is more then just anecdotal.

Look! It's a book, a phone, a camera, a recorder

[mindbrane]

My Aspire One running ubuntu is just great thanks. Cost me 250 loonies. Best of all, it's 8" screen means I can manipulate it almost like a medium sized book. I can kick back on the couch, at a table, on the subway, where ever and twist and turn it as needed. I stick with the SSD drive because I it affords me even less worry about jostling it around. With wifi and 10/100 built in, how could anyone go without one. $250 bucks, you can't afford not to own one. Best tech toy to come down the pike ever.

Re:It's fairly obvious why they are so successful.

[bemymonkey]

Actually, an Atom N270/N280 has a pretty hard time playing back Flash video... so online porn isn't actually all that accessible on netbooks.

Re:Tons sold, how many ppl like them?

[swanzilla]

One person in general got a netbook from there husband.

I don't even know where to begin with this sentence...

Netbooks w/XP Have Microsoft Imposed Limits

[HermMunster]

When Microsoft was pushing Vista one of the things that they claimed was that the number of available XP product keys had become exhausted. Due to this they decided to remove the SKU from OEM vendors and other retailers, and set support services end dates. Their claim was that since they couldn't issue any more XP product keys you needed to upgrade to Vista instead.

Linux had begun a fast rise in the netbook market and this alarmed Microsoft to the degree that they decided to issue more product keys. This should have negated their argument about the necessity of upgrading to Vista.

There were questions that Microsoft had manufacturers modify the bios of their new models to exclude necessary information that allowed the installation of drivers for hardware (on computer models, not necessarily including the netbooks). This came out in a number of articles and in one case someone showed that the bios of certain machines had some important tables removed pertaining to Linux, making it difficult to install, etc.

The netbook back at the start of this had a large growing population of women in the 45+ range that had never used Linux before but had become users by virtue of it. Many found it to be just fine for what they were doing with it (browsing the web, writing email, watching videos, playing music, using it for programs like skype to communicate, etc). Since these books had Linux pre-installed by the manufacturer there was no need for them to configure drivers, hardware, to install more software, etc.

Microsoft's reaction was to reissue XP product keys and then to set some limits on what the netbook hardware could do. For instance, they limited the amount of ram to 1 gig. They limited the onboard graphics to a certain subset, they limited the hard disk capacity to 160 gig, they limited the display size which also limits the keyboard size. The prohibited the netbook from having a CD/DVD drive. They limited the processor type and speed, they limit the number of USB ports to 3, etc.

Under Linux these limitations don't exist and that is probably a good part of the reason that Dell has chosen to produce some Linux netbooks with some oomph. These limits are only on XP based netbooks whereas the Linux netbooks can be much more powerful if the manufacturer wishes it. It doesn't mean that they will push the power of them, it just means that it is not necessary that they take these considerations in to account.

The OEMs account for the vast majority of netbooks sold. It doesn't mean that you can't purchase one from these OEMs and then upgrade it yourself. If a netbook has a USB port then you can an external drive or DVD/CD burner. You can also add more RAM and a larger HDD if you are willing to tear one of those things apart, and it can be difficult for some models.

Re:Netbooks w/XP Have Microsoft Imposed Limits

[HermMunster]

That's not a wise question.

First, no one said that 1 gig wasn't enough, yet there are plenty of people that do want more as part of the base unit, and there are those that do add more to these netbooks.

The USB stick is insufficient for performing many tasks. You need a CD/DVD or you can't install a lot of commercial software. Flash memory, though growing in capacity and lowering in price, isn't fool proof and is still much more costly than purchasing CD/DVDs for back up. Most thumb flash drives don't have the capacity to back up all our data. Purchasing lots of flash thumb drives can and will add to confusion. You can't play your store-bought CDs though your flash drive without a CD/DVD first used to rip the music. Not everyone wishes to purchase music on-line.

Adding more RAM doesn't equate to bloatware. Adding a CD/DVD doesn't equate to bloatware. Installation of end-user applications doesn't equate to bloatware, at least from the perspective of the OS.

The purpose behind Microsoft's limitations was to make the netbooks less attractive and to push users to the higher prices notebook models where Microsoft's margins are higher.

Re:It's fairly obvious why they are so successful.

[Mprx]

I'm currently using a netbook as my primary computer, following hardware failure. I plugged in a real keyboard, mouse and speakers, which solves the biggest usability problem, and I'm running Ubuntu using the Maximus window manager to get the best use of the small screen. I've also customized Firefox to avoid wasted space. The biggest hardware limitation is the ram size. It's hard to go back from 4GB to 512MB. Hopefully I'll soon be back on a better computer, but the netbook is tolerable.

Re:Tons sold, how many ppl like them?

[Trifthen]

Personally, I love mine. But I did a ton of research instead of just buying the cheapest netbook out there. My Samsung NC10 was known as one of the best, and I spruced it up by adding a 64GB OCZ Vertex SSD and a draft-n wireless card.

And the thing is, I actually sold my beautiful (and ridiculously powerful) Asus G1 because I noticed I was using the netbook for everything. I ride the train every morning and every night as a commute, and really the netbook is perfect for on-the-go computing. I can do my pylons development, whip up some satire, or anything else. Ubuntu and Compiz work fine on here, so why not? Still get my six hours of battery life, so I'll be the last to complain. It's all the computer I need, and I'm something of a minimalist.

If they could increase the screen resolution to have greater height and decrease the thickness, I'd say they'll have hit the sweet spot for commuters. 2.8 pounds and 10" have no problem just being stuffed in any bag, and I think that's where they really win. No need for a dedicated backpack, or case, or laptop tote... just stuff it in a bag with the rest of your stuff, and go.

I used to only build dual-CPU rigs, then I moved on to laptops only, and now I'm a huge fan of netbooks. Not sure where they'll go after this, but I know what my next upgrade will be.

Re:Tons sold, how many ppl like them?

[Anonymous Coward]

One person in general got a netbook from there husband.

I don't even know where to begin with this sentence...

What sentence?

Mac OS X is killer on a netbook

[elliott666]

I'm on my third netbook now since they came around, and the second running OSX perfectly. OSX on the Dell Mini 10v with a SSD is really fast and works perfectly. It's a really nice machine to have in addition to another 'real' computer.

Re:It's fairly obvious why they are so successful.

[MBGMorden]

Indeed. People are keeping older computers longer now, and newer computers no longer require the purchase of top notch hardware to be useful. I can't remember the last time I bought anything other than the cheapest CPU Newegg offered for the motherboard I was looking to pair the chip with. For general usage there's barely any difference between the fastest chip they sell and the slowest - most home users would never tell the difference. RAM has also gotten cheap. $40 or so will buy you 4gb, which I'll not go so far as to claim is "all anyone will ever need", but realistically it's plenty enough for most desktop users. Heck 1GB is still plenty for most of them and that's been a very attainable number for nearly 10 years now.

Truthfully, despite having upgraded my processor and ram several times in between (mainly for stuff like gaming, video encoding, source compilation, etc), for BASIC usage my newest machine, a 2.5Ghz Phenom with 4GB of RAM, doesn't really feel any faster than my old Athlon 1.2Ghz with 1GB of RAM felt. I still want my faster machine for those times when I do just need to crunch some numbers (and most of Slashdot will need the same from time to time), but for your regular old users out there, they just don't do that sort of thing, and older (or in this case smaller and cheaper) will do them just fine.

Because they're flashing you

[tepples]

How come you know that porn uses Flash video?

If they're flashing you, they're showing you their private parts. Otherwise, it wouldn't be porn.

Re:Tons sold, how many ppl like them?

[Enzo1977]

Did anyone else notice the parent's homepage link to their freelance writing and editing service?

Re:It's fairly obvious why they are so successful.

[commodore64_love]

P.S.

Apple and Microsoft are going to have a hard time surviving in the 2010s. Their business model is based-upon selling a new OS with new features like music playback (early 90s) or video playback (late 90s) or HD playback (now). These new features came-about because computers get getting faster. But what happens when users buy a Phenom machine in 2010 and are still using the same machine in 2020, and feel absolutely no need to upgrade wither the hardware or the OS? Microsoft will see its revenue shrink.

Perhaps this is why they are trying to move to a rental model, in order to ensure they keep getting paid even if you don't upgrade.