Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: Intel, Atom, Netbook, OLPC, Classmate | Themes: Business, Business Notebooks
According to CNet’s Nanotech blog, Stu Pann, vice president in the sales and marketing group at Intel, said at a recent conference that the company sees the ultra portable notebooks differently now.
Pann says that Intel originally thought the netbook would be for emerging markets and younger kids and while that’s true to an extent, the majority of sales are coming from Western Europe and North America from people who just want to “grab and go” with a notebook. Pann went on to say that anyone who has used one of these will realize it’s not something you use all the time.
"If you’ve ever used a Netbook and used a 10-inch screen size—it’s fine for an hour. It’s not something you’re going to use day in and day out."
For a company that supplies the Atom processor to nearly every company that takes it upon itself to poop out a netbook (including that one light bulb company), taken out of context this comments could raise a few eyebrows, and sure, “fine for an hour” isn’t the nicest thing you could say about netbooks. However, we don’t think that Penn has said anything that everyone else didn’t think already.
Yes, to started with you had the OLPC, a computer designed for kids in developing nations. Purely educational, the intended market was not your traveling businessman or your university student. Similarly, it was not aimed at people who wanted something they could use while they hang out at the pool during their vacation. However, to say Intel is rethinking the netbook doesn’t mean the company is about to trash the idea completely because at the end of the day, it’s still making buckets of money from the processor everyone wants to use.
An interesting side note though, despite Pann’s comments about the netbook not being as successful in the market the company thought, Intel’s Classmate PC is walking all over the OLPC in terms of sales, so perhaps all is not lost for Intel in terms of the emerging markets/younger children demographic.
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I don't argue that using a netbook for longer than an hour makes you really start to miss a full-sized keyboard and a greater screen resolution, there are those people out there that don't spend more than an hour a day doing casual browsing or email.
Just look at that old couple in the article image. I highly doubt that either of them would spend more than an hour per session on the computer, and there are plenty more just like them -- of all ages. The netbook perfectly fits such needs for its portability and affordability.
Well current netbooks have enough power for longer term use (for many users) but these rules about size are hurting not helping. a 12 inch aspire one would cost what $450. The dell mini 12 is great but looking at the price not really acceptable. I personally just cant type on anything smaller than 92% keyboard size and anything less than 100% is a big pain. No wonder they are 1 hour devices. Still waiting for someone to make what I want in a netbook at a decent price.
Is it me, or didn't we all start out using 10" screens and keyboards you could not type on back in the early 90's? That was perfectly acceptable then, why not now? Has anyone else noticed that as technology advanced, screens and keyboards got bigger? But wait, the Atom is still WAY faster than the i80386 SX25 laptop I'm calling to mind.
Someone like me who is sick of surfing the net from his Windows Mobile 6 Cell phone on a train would take a Netbook ANY DAY! I for one and happy to see these little buggers being sold by everyone... keeping there prices down!
My first laptop was sub 10" (133 mhz) and I did many thousands of hours of work on it. Me thinks the Atom isn't making the money they were hoping it would and they want to push the market towards slightly larger 11-12" boxes which run C2D and cost 5X more. Alternatively they might market them as purely supplements to desktops and that way sell two processors.
As an addendum, I do use my XO a lot even with the crumy gummy keyboard. Sucks to be an early adopter sometimes.
I would enjoy having a netbook, though my iPwn is so great and so small, it's difficult for me to feel the necessity of adding to my computer and laptop collection.
I just don't understand a product, who's only strong arguing point is "it's cheap."
Agreed lol ^
+1
I can see alot of use for the netbook simply because it's cheap and small as opposed to lugging around 8lb 17" widescreen laptop just to check e-mail and check out some stuff on the net.
I paid close to $1,500 for a 17" HP laptop about two years ago and it is a nice laptop but too damn heavy to carry around everyday.
So the lightweight ultra-portable cheap laptops are a blessing.
Just hope they have a decent display screens cuz I can't stand low-rez screens.
I just don't understand a product, who's only strong arguing point is "it's cheap."
If it does what you need/want it to do and it's cheaper than the other products, what's not to understand? Also, one of the other selling points was portability. The original Asus Eeepc could reasonably fit into a purse or a briefcase.
someone out there still has use for this kind of device.
would understand a product like an iphone? yet there are still people find it useful and not just cool to have.
The thing about netbooks is it fits a market segment that is frustrated with the development and price of pocketable PDA's and UMPC (ultra moble pc's) and want options. Keep in mind, a netbook will be specifically under-rated specifications to a laptop and that is exactly why you usually pay less for them. On the other hand, a perfectly working used laptop can fit the same product segment for those who want the bigger screen and footprint but don't want to pay top-dollar which is anywhere from about $500 up...
Laptops used to be VERY expensive computers.. that's not necessarily the case.. the cool thing is, with one of these devices, you could easily mount a 2tb drive and have a virutal multi-media center.. the heck with 160gb ipod classic... all at prices comparable to the old 5gb ipod that started the ipod craze... buy what fits your use, but be s smart shopper and don't overpay or not get what you want in a computer.
I just don't understand a product, who's only strong arguing point is "it's cheap."
I congratulate you then for never once in your life finding yourself at a juncture where the price of an item like this is its single biggest selling feature. That said, there are other strong points to this genre as previously stated. I find that when I am on a trip, the vast majority of tasks I perform on a portable amount to nothing more than small spreadsheets, light word processing, email and a small amount of web browsing. Even with this computer’s small screen and keyboard size, it sure beats using the blackberry.
Pooping out a netbook is a LOT less painful than pooping out a light bulb. Trust me.
Lol
J/k?