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Dell Ditches Netbooks

Posted by timothy on from the but-what-about-mega-ultra-super-ueber-books? dept.

angry tapir writes "Dell has ceased production of Inspiron Mini netbooks; in effect ending its pursuit of the receding netbook market, at least for consumer sales. When Dell ran through its stock of the netbooks several months ago, it declined to manufacture more units."

5 of 354 comments (clear)

  1. iPad by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Interesting

    iPad killed the netbook market.

    1. Re:iPad by artor3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Nah, netbooks are still great for portable work. If you travel a lot, and need a computer primarily for office apps and web browsing, then nothing beats a netbook. Tablets are more oriented towards media consumption -- games, video, that sort of thing.

    2. Re:iPad by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The iPad completely killed the mass netbook market. Now it's little more than a niche.

      I recently attended a large medical conference, and it was quite interesting to watch the people when they were between sessions. There were hundreds of people sitting around with their computers out, and it amazed me that the majority of them used netbooks. The Ultrabook/Macbook Air made up a close second place, while there were only a handful of the 15" luggables. The really surprising thing was how few people had iPads. I guess you can't beat a keyboard for writing notes.

      You may consider this to be a niche market, but anyone who has to travel and walk around a lot while carrying their computer will appreciate the netbooks for their weight. The fact that they are inexpensive means that you don't have to worry about the netbooks getting broken while you are travelling.

  2. Re:price... by couchslug · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Most people stopped buying them because the manufactures forgot why people were getting them in the first place."

    Or because the manufacturers KNEW why people were buying them in the first place and preferred to guide them elsewhere.

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  3. Re:next we'll hear that Dell is in trouble... by erroneus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would be more inclined to look in Microsoft's direction. Microsoft doesn't like Dell selling anything that doesn't have a Microsoft OS on them. Windows 7 can't really run on netbooks. Microsoft wants XP to go away. XP is the only Windows OS that can really run on a netbook. So it would make sense that Dell might be getting some pressure from Microsoft to stop selling netbooks. It wouldn't be the first time Dell bowed to pressure from Microsoft.