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Can NetBooks & Tablets Co-Exist?
bsk_cw writes "According to Computerworld's Serdar Yegulalp, there has been a lot of talk about whether the iPad will take the place of the netbook — or, in fact, whether it will eat into the market share for more mainstream desktop and laptop computers. But, he continues, the iPad has a long way to go before it becomes a netbook killer — if only because it has created a space all its own."
A proper open tablet could pretty much wipe out netbooks.
However, the Tablet du jour is no such thing. It is artificially limited by it's creator.
Therefore until more capable Tablets gain some visibility in the market, netbooks aren't
going anywhere.
People will still need to do things that Apple won't allow.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Gah. These summaries are getting worse and worse. Tablets have been around for awhile. Apple didn't invent the market with the iPad.
No, they didn't invent the market.
They just figured out how to make a product that would sell into the market.
Tablets simply never sold before the way the iPad is selling.
Apple developed a highly polished version that did well in that market.
Normally I would agree, as that is what Apple does with most things.
But there was nothing in the market to polish. There was nothing in the tablet space like the iPad. It was all PC/Stylus based, kind of the opposite to what the iPad is and why it works.
Was there even a single touch-capible system in there? I don't remember any.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
A proper open tablet could pretty much wipe out netbooks.
Yeah, I'm calling bullshit.
I know this isn't a popular opinion here on Slashdot, but guess what? *Most people don't give a shit about "open" or "closed" hardware*. Hell, they probably don't even realize the iPlatform is a closed ecosystem, as that's only evident if you try to develop for the thing.
No, this idiotic meme that "if only they'd open the hardware, they'd destroy everyone!", no matter what "they" is (PS3, NDS, iPlatform, etc), needs to stop. It's so hilariously naive it just makes you look stupid.
The EeePc seems to vary in sturdiness based on the model. My 1000HE is rock-rolid and all-in-all it's the best-built laptop I've ever owned. My parents have the 1101HA and it's much flimsier.. the hinge for the screen is loose and the keyboard is spongy. Also, the graphics are noticeably slow, probably because of the extra pixels in the larger screen. Just have to pick the right one.
So, what *exactly* are these two, somewhat overlapping niches you are referring to?
To me there are four big differences between the netbook and the Apple i-things:
1. Netbook has a keyboard you can type on, even if adapting to it takes some time.
2. Netbook will run Windows and random Windows software.
3. Netbook generally has better performance and is capable of running a lot of older Windows games (video is different as I believe i-things have hardware H.264 support and the netbook probably doesn't?).
4. The netbook costs half as much.
To me it's more a question of whether you want a small but real keyboard and the ability to run arbitrary software than anything else. If, say, you really want to run Windows for some reason then the i-things are a total non-starter.
So I don't see how anyone can claim that they're interchangeable. Price, lack of keyboard and inability to run my applications mean I wouldn't even consider an i-thingy.
What about laptops and netbooks? Is the war over yet?
I don't see that there's any niche for a netbook.. unless you really really want a proper laptop and you can't afford one.. because netbooks are just cheap laptops.
I just came back from a one month vacation in Australia. I had my netbook with me and I used it mainly to check mail (thunderbird with local folders backed up almost daily on a usb pen drive with rsync) and to upload pictures and notes of my travel to my website. However I also did some work for a couple of customers of mine who sent me mail about some bugs to fix. I wrote the code, tested it and pushed it into a git repository. I wouldn't be able to do that with an iPad and taking my notebook with me (I got one, I'm that wealthy) would have been very inconvenient as it's twice as large as the netbook and almost three times as heavy. I never ever considered to put it into my backpack.
With this experience in mind I do believe that there is a niche for netbooks. Probably it's going to be a very small one because of what most people's computing needs are, but I'm happy we have cheap netbooks that are powerful enough to work on them (but I concede that I'm more productive with the notebook).
If you don't believe me, talk to product owners.
Honest ones will tell you it can be a pretty annoying device.
A friend told me about doing some internet banking on one the other day... halfway through a transaction set up he needed to use a calculator... but opening the calculator app would terminate the internet banking app and he had to re-login and select the accounts, and start the transaction every time he switched between them. For a web banking app its appropriate that it discard its session when you suspend it for obvious reasons...but it was effectively impossible to do any calculations at the same time as a result.
What he really wanted was the two apps in their own window, so he could go back and forth, and have both on the screen at the same time - you know so he could see the source for the numbers rather than remembering them in his head.
Ended up having to get a separate calculator.
He also thought it was stupid that he couldn't easily use it to view other peoples pictures. (e.g. they'd visit, and have a CD/DVD or memory card of vacation or baby pictures, and there was no efficient way of viewing it on the ipad. Importing the photos to iphoto and then syncing them to the ipad was simply idiotic. It was too much work, and he didn't want to import the pictures into his computer.