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Sporkman
April 29th, 2010, 03:44 PM
Snazzier Laptops Steal Netbooks' Thunder

by Justin Scheck and Nick Wingfield
Monday, April 26, 2010

Pricier, more powerful notebook computers are sucking some of the steam from netbooks, the low-priced darlings that helped fuel sales for the PC industry in the past two years.

Many consumers—searching for more computing power than the compact, portable netbooks can deliver—are opting to pay more for laptops with bigger displays and circuitry suited for jobs like manipulating photos and video, which is beyond the capability of most netbooks...

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/109387/snazzier-laptops-steal-netbooks-thunder?mod=family-home

JDShu
April 29th, 2010, 03:47 PM
Yeah I saw this in the WSJ. The important thing to remember is that the market is still growing. Now if only those mythical $200 ARM netbooks would appear...

snowpine
April 29th, 2010, 03:52 PM
The problem was the death of 7" and 9" Linux netbooks. Now all you see is 10" and 12" models with Windows. I agree at that point, you're better off going with a small notebook. But the 7-9" Linux netbooks had a good niche as super-portable devices; if they are cheap and portable, they do not need to be powerful in my opinion. Hopefully the ARM devices will revive the market.

Tristam Green
April 29th, 2010, 03:57 PM
Because having Windows on a device like a netbook completely impacts its portability. Right.

I think the issues with netbooks is that largely, people saw them just as a "little laptop", and fooling themselves into believing that they were a viable replacement for a good solid large laptop, which they aren't.

Netbooks are good at what they're great for -- portable laptops for blogging, documents, Facebook/networking, and not for gaming (mostly, some games do run on netbooks like my AOD150), movies (HD movies, tbh), or serious graphics work.

The articles about the "Death of Netbooks" are really misleading, because it implies that there is something wrong with netbooks, when there isn't. The problem is with misinformed/noninformed consumers.

Gone fishing
April 29th, 2010, 03:57 PM
I have money - I want one - but where can I buy those ARM netbooks??

I thought this looked nice

http://www.itechnews.net/2010/01/13/freescale-smartbook-tablet-reference-design/

but where can I buy it??

Gone fishing
April 29th, 2010, 04:03 PM
I bought myself a Dell dual core laptop, I bought my daughter a compaq mini (with Windows but now Ubuntu).

I wish I had hers its light convenient and powerful enough.

Mine is just too damn heavy, I just use my desktop.

madjr
April 29th, 2010, 04:51 PM
people also want those netbook/tablet hybrids

but yea the problem with netbooks today is that they cost $400 - $500

so they're expensive and underpowered..

but the netbook market is lightyears bigger than tablet market

am still waiting for the world changing (cure world information hunger) $200 smartbooks

Sporkman
April 29th, 2010, 05:05 PM
world changing (cure world information hunger)

:lol:

snowpine
April 29th, 2010, 08:27 PM
Because having Windows on a device like a netbook completely impacts its portability. Right.

I think the issues with netbooks is that largely, people saw them just as a "little laptop", and fooling themselves into believing that they were a viable replacement for a good solid large laptop, which they aren't.

I agree 200%. :) I think with Windows preinstalled, customers think, "oh this is just like my desktop, I don't have to change my habits," whereas if Linux is preinstalled, they think "weird, a new operating system, I need to change my thinking and really try to understand what this device is capable of."

I am actually a Linux user specifically because of the early Asus EEE series. If not for that, I would probably still be using Windows/Mac.

cloyd
April 30th, 2010, 01:55 AM
Really, one of the fancier "netbooks" was what brought me to Ubuntu. I took my wife with me as I went shopping for a netbook. She is a believer that "more expensive is better". We both bought netbooks, Gateways with two gig RAM and 160 gig hard drives. Small screens, but really not that small. Considerably easier to carry around, but not "dinky". Since it had 2 gig, it also had Vista. I wanted it for the internet, word processing, email, and a little music. No cd playing (remember, it's a netbook?) Just a little music while I worked.

It worked just fine . . . until I put a printer driver on it. Remember, I said "word processing"? It slowed down to a crawl. If I left it running and didn't come back for 30 minutes, it would freeze. I had to reboot. I tried Ubuntu, and loved it. It worked on my slow machine. Would you believe, the compiz cube works without any problem, and does not overburden the cpu? Boots fast. Faster than my other laptop, with a faster 64 bit processor, and 4 gig of ram and Vista (64 bit). Would I switch back? Not on your life. (the other other
processor is faster. Slower processors do a better job than fast ones if the fast one is on Vista, and the slow one is on Ubuntu.)

Somehow, I think that performance and usability will be rewarded. Ubuntu is superior to Windows. The apps are there for most people; they just don't work exactly the same. It's free. There is a world of support, but not at the end of a phone exactly when I want it (I may have to be a bit patient, but then again, I may figure it out by the time I get the support . . . no longer than a day or two.) Mt little problems have all been solved or had a decent work around. Ubuntu should just keep plugging. It will keep on working.

By the way, I only gave my Ubunu partition 40 gig. I've installed every application I want, and still have a world of space. I did make another partition for my music. That alone, alone with few crashes (which I think I caused) should tell someone how good this system is.

I don't know. Mabye the netbooks are declining. I wish I had bought a smaller netbook. I'd probably switched to Ubuntu sooner. And, I am sure it would be doing a quality job. Maybe the netbook is dying, but with Ubuntu, they can do as much as a quality notebook under Vista.

If the netbook is declining, it is because of marketing pressure, not market pressure. There is a difference.