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Who Killed the Netbook?
itwbennett writes "Netbooks died the death of a thousand cuts and there were conspirators aplenty with motive, weapons and opportunity. Was the unpopularity of Linux to blame? What about Microsoft and its efforts to kill XP? Ever smarter smartphones certainly played a role, as did the rise of the App Store, and lighter full-featured notebooks. Or maybe it was just that the American consumer wasn't going to be satisfied with technology designed for third-world use. 'In late 2005, the only computer found for $100 was stolen, was dead, or was ancient enough to require Windows 95. A real and functional computer for $100 was a dream, but also made people wonder what sacrifices might need to be made to offer such a comparatively inexpensive machine,' writes Tom Henderson, in an in-depth look at what contributed to the netbook's demise." Before solving the murder mystery, it's worth considering whether the netbook is actually dead.
Exactly, every time I go to a shop at least 1/3 of the portable computers sold are netbooks. With prices about half of the cheapest 14"+ laptops they are very good choice in a poor European country, and perhaps in many other parts of the world. And unlike spartphones, netbooks are real computers that can be actively used for many hours both for creating and consuming content.
Tablets became the new thing to have. Demand for netbooks dropped and so did prices. Netbooks that were selling for $300 are selling for $200, so manufacturers are moving to producing tablets, which have higher profit margins. It's not rocket science, just simple economics.
There are more models of netbooks now then during the height of the netbook craze. What has died is Linux powered netbooks with cheap SSDs. From retailer reports a lot of people who bought netbooks weren't satisfied with Linux and weren't satisfied with the storage of the cheap SSDs. So now days you have cheap Windows netbooks with conventional spinning disc drives, and very expensive small laptops with expensive SSDs.
To me the whole appeal of the netbook was something small and light that I could chuck in my backpack and not worry about, which doesn't work with a spinning disc HDD (when I worked in computer repair 90% of laptop issues were damaged HDDs. A certain brand of laptops we sold had a MTBF of its drives of probably 3 months in actual real world usage).
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CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
DAS BUNKER, Redmond, Friday (MSBBC) — Cheap netbooks are too limited and no-one will want them any more, say high-ticket vendors at the mere 103% increase in netbook sales in 2009 over 2008.
The small, portable computers sold in stupendous numbers in 2009, but industry watchers have been convinced by Microsoft and Intel to say that their popularity is waning. “No-one is buying a 10-inch netbook that costs £500 and runs Windows 7,” said Stuart Miles of Pocket Unit. “So everyone will go back to expensive iPhones and full-sized laptops, any day now. This ‘internet’ thing is just a fad too.”
What people are looking for now, he believes, is a machine that can keep up with the demands of contemporary web users. A small netbook running Windows 7 Dumbass Edition, which runs up to three applications at a time and holds your data hostage until you cough up eighty quid to run a fourth, is “thoroughly inadequate” to the task. “Linux, of course, doesn’t exist, wasn’t the impetus for cheap netbooks and didn’t cripple Microsoft’s bottom line for the last three years by providing actual competition for the first time in decades. So it’s not like it can do twice as much in half the space.”
Ian Drew, spokesman for chip designer ARM Holdings, also believes netbooks are in for a shake-up. “Apparently, netbooks that weigh nothing, run twice as fast and have an all-day battery but don’t run Windows are a problem for ARM, not for Microsoft,” he said, lighting a cigar off a fifty-pound note.
Mr Miles believes tablets will take up the mantle from the netbook. “If we carefully define tablets as ‘not netbooks,’ even though they’re made by the same companies with the same technology running the same software, we can claim the netbook is dead even though people are suddenly realising how stupidly huge, unwieldy and heavy even a fourteen-inch laptop is. It’s all about picking your terms rather than, e.g., selling what people actually want instead of what you’d like them to want. Also, if you whack in a 3G modem it’s suddenly a phone instead, and never mind the Mini 9.”
“Clap your hands if you don’t believe in netbooks,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “Marketers! Marketers! Marketers! Marketers!”
Photo: Netbook, circa 1982.
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You aren't just getting less CPU and GPU power and screen size/resolution though. You are getting a smaller lighter device with (in many, but not all, cases) better battery life.
My current netbook (N550, 1Gb RAM, 250Gb HDD) is about perfectly capable for what I do on the move (basic web browsing & email via tethering to my phone or using wireless where available, a little development, documents/spreadsheets in openoffice, some MP3s and occasionally video) while being significantly more convenient to carry than a larger device and still having a usable keyboard unlike those touch-screen things (almost perfect because I may have been better to go with the N450 based model for the better battery life claim, and I might open her up and put in an SSD in place of the spinning disc at some point in the future, but those are nit-picks rather than problems).
I suspect there is large enough market for netbooks in people like me for who the format is closer to ideal than either a bigger laptop or a tablet, for the market to survive for a while yet.
If you need/want a bigger screen or more power, and don't mind the extra size and weight (or don't mind the extra cost for one that doesn't weight a chunk more than a netbook - there are some surprisingly feather-light models at the more expensive end of the market), then yes a netbook is a bad choice for you. You probably wouldn't need to spend as much as that extra $100 either, especially if you keep an eye out for special offers. My old man is considering a 15"/3Gb/250Gb model with a reasonable CPU and GPU that is only £15 more than my netbook cost. If you are happy with a lower umpth (but still significantly faster than an Atom) CPU & GPU, 1Gb or 2Gb RAM and a 160Gb drive then there are models that are cheaper still. My netbook wouldn't be great for him, but for me the price/performance/convenience/utility balance is excellent and given how many I see in use on the train when I travel I'm guessing there are plenty of other people who also find then the best choice from what the current market offers.
tl;dr: netbooks are the best choice for a lot of people. If you are not one of those people then yes you will be better served by the full-size laptop or tablet markets. Strokes for folks and all that.