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Technology Changes To Kill Netbooks?
The BBC is reporting that the netbook craze may already be nearing the end of its run. Citing rising netbook prices and many other evolving technologies that can potentially fill that gap, some critics think that the limited power of netbooks will ultimately bring about the quick demise of the once popular device. "Ian Drew, spokesman for chip designer Arm, also believes netbooks are in for a shake-up. Consumers, he said, were chafing against the restrictions that using a netbook imposed on them. 'We have failed the consumer because we have imposed constraints on them,' he said. Changing web habits and greater use of social media will mean consumers will be looking for gadgets that are tuned to specific purposes. 'It will be a lot of different machines for a lot of different people,' he said. 'This whole market will be exploding in the next couple of years.' Impetus for this change will come, he believes, from the phone world where many, many types of gadgets are already blooming."
What's he talking about? The Wikipedia says the Eee PC was introduced at a price of $399 US. Taking a wander around the racks at the local electronics retailer suggests that the average netbook, which has considerably better specs than the Eee is priced around $300-$350 CAN, which some being as cheap as $250 CAN.
Mine (Acer aspire) was less than $300, is small and light enough to take along every day, and
is powerful enough to support the work I do (sw development). All three are important for me
to have my work with me all the time. Any more expensive and I'd think twice about taking it
everywhere. At $300 if I loose it or break it it's annoying but easy enough to replace. Any
bigger or heavier and I'd think twice about throwing it in my backpack every day. Any less power,
or no keyboard, and I couldn't do my work. It's in the sweet spot for portable computing. Sure
more battery time would be nice, but not at the expense of the keyboard, the power, or the
manageable size and low cost.
Many contemporary netbook models run Windows XP or Windows 7 which has forced the specifications, and price, upwards. Many, he said, now cost at least £350, a figure close to that for a more capable full-size laptop.
I wonder if licensing costs will be enough of a factor to help edge linux back (or get manufacturer support increased) onto netbooks. It seems XP was ok, but I'm curious what the price difference is for a crippled windows 7 install. I've seen returns on those netbooks because the buyer couldn't change the background!
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
It seems that netbooks in the 7-9" range have started to disappear, instead they've grown slightly (both in size and specs) to essentially have become 10" cheap laptops. I know many people that use them as machines to take while traveling (especially internationally) and even more people that use them as their primary portable (typically with a larger laptop or desktop relegated to, well, the desk). $300 for a small, durable laptop with more than enough performance to do word-processing, web browsing and watch movies on, most which get 5+ hours of battery life (depending on usage) is still an amazing deal.
A good indication of their continuing success is the fact that 10" netbooks still account for 4 out of 5 of the top sellers in the computers and accessories categories on Amazon.
Who waits for booting when you can just put the machine to sleep/hibernate when you're not using it?!?
People who have to make do with broken device drivers that come out of sleep with no sound or (worse) no video. I've seen it happen in both Windows and Linux.
the article should be tagged FUD, really.
MS doesn't like netbooks because of a lack of margin, so they try to put out press whenever they can against the concept.
In reality, netbook sales are WAY up, which isn't a sign of them going down.
CDs and DVDs are overrated. A USB pen can store a lot more in a smaller form factor.
The netbook is just the first of many. We got a nice device outside of the Wintel duopoly and people discovered that they loved it. Then the duopoly imivated their own version, locking down specs and defining it to be what they wanted it to be - in the process driving up the price and netting them a bunch of embarassing low-margin sales, but at least preventing the other guys from reaping the full benefit of their innovation. If OEMs want to create new things and keep control of the markets they create all that's needed is to avoid platforms Windows can run on.
I think that OEMs are coming to understand that there is a market for any device that enables and empowers individuals to do new things - if it's portable and reliable and doesn't impose unnecessary restrictions. It's not really about the widget, it's about the people.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Please don't use Bing. It didn't return any relevant results.
The problem with convergence is that the more functionality you put into a given device, the more load you put on that device's battery.
No single device - yet - has the ability to power all the various sub-tasks that we use these devices for and still maintain an acceptable level of readiness.
My Palm Lifedrive (which was really ahead of its time) made a great ebook reader, GPS (using a bluetooth GPS receiver) PDA, music and audiobook listener, and a passable video device, gaming platform, and web browser. But all those functions drew on the same battery. And some of those functions (GPS and internet access) require radios to be active (Bluetooth and WiFi) and so they hammer the battery even harder than self-contained apps.
When it is out of charge, you're dead in the water for all those functions.
So now, I have an iPod for audio/visual. I have a Kindle for ebooks. I have an eeePC 901 for internet, general purpose computing, and gaming. I have a Garmin 765 for vehicle navigation and audiobooks. I have a PSP-Go for gaming (xmas present) And I have a phone for communications and emergency web access.
Yes, that is a hell of a lot more devices to manage, and there is a nontrivial amount of mass in power adapters. In some ways, this is a step backwards. But by spreading tasks amongst devices, I ensure that I always have enough battery charge to do whatever task it is I want, when I want it. Or put another way, because I spread the power consumption amongst several devices, the likelihood of .any given device being charged up enough to carry out the intended task for the duration I want is very high.
Another factor (which is related) is that device specialization means the device can be better tuned for the task at hand, and storage requirements aren't a zero-sum. I can have a lot of music and video in my iPod (it's a 160Gb) I can have a lot of books. I can have fully detailed maps of the world and a bunch of audiobooks. I can have lots of games. And I can have a workable keyboard! All this without having to rob Peter to pay Paul in a single device.
Eventually, this will all get worked out. The iPhone unquestionably trumps my LifeDrive as a convergence device. I fully expect the 5th or 6th gen iPhone will have sufficient storage space and mature applications to fully take over the media, ebook, and quite possibly gaming functions, as well as be a serviceable personal GPS. But it will also have to be able to power these functions for at least 24 hours of use without recharging before it can fully replace all the other devices, and I don't think it will ever replace the general computing function of the netbook.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
I believe TFA is talking about the Latitude ON technology at that point. Basically the Linux system is running on an ARM processor (and probably from an embedded flash, instead of HDD/SDD), while the Windows system runs on Intel processor (the laptop has both). It's hardly a fair comparison, but that's what you get for not having an ARM port of Windows.
I don't think we can just blame MSFT for this round o' FUD, I bet a lot of it can be traced back to good old chipzilla Intel. So see Intel thought they had their plan down cold: Make an uber-cheapo chip (Atom) and carve out a new niche to sell said cheapo chip (MID) and kick back and cash the checks while not hurting their laptop business nary a ta ta.
Instead though what happens is the hardware manufacturers didn't go with MID (which according to the Intel vision was a cheap stylus based "browser in a box") but instead copied the idea of the OLPC and gave us cheapo netbooks with those chips instead which do compete with Intel's laptop chips, as there are many folks that spent big money on laptops that found they are quite happy with a cheap portable netbook. Now they not only have to deal with Atom cutting into their profits, they have AMD and ARM jumping into the game as well, which I'm sure has the guys at Intel ready to shit puppies. I think that is why they are coming out with Pine Trail, so they can use the Atom to at least put another nail in the Nvidia coffin by killing Ion.
But I'm sure Intel can't be too happy right about now. Netbooks are up, laptops are down, and I just saw a nice row of AMD Neo based netbooks starting at just $450 at Walmart that do HD video and can even do light gaming thanks to the Radeon onboard. IIRC Intel put just as many restrictions on Atom as MSFT did, such as "no dual cores" in netbooks and keep the discount, etc. I wonder if they'll have to bite the bullet and lift those next year or try to steer folks away from buying their Atom chips in the hopes of selling them Core based devices? Because with ARM getting ready to drop the price floor out of netbooks, and Neo solving the "lousy video" problem it looks more and more to me that with Atom Intel may have made a boo boo. Once they opened the door and showed everyone that there was profits to be made I bet they will have a hard time just killing the netbook, especially now that their rivals have all jumped on board.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.