Intel predicts rise of the ultra-thins
Intel believes that ultra-thin laptops - like the Acer Aspire Timeline - will win out over netbooks, despite being twice the price.
Speaking during Intel's earnings report, CNet reports that Otellini claimed that ultra-thin laptops can address core issues that buyers of netbooks are finding a source of irritation. Claiming that consumers are often disappointed when they “try to do 3D games on [netbooks] or try to run their office applications on them” and blaming the “entire architecture” of netbooks rather than his company's Atom range of low-power chips, Otellini believes that the time has come for ultra-thins to take centre stage.
While ultra-thin laptops were once the sole preserve of the top-end of the market – and often had slower, less powerful processors – Otellini believes that enough users have reached the limitations of their netbooks that the higher price of an ultra-thin - $699 for an Acer Aspire Timeline – is no longer so much of an objection.
Trying to push consumers towards ultra-thin laptops makes sense from a business standpoint: while Intel's Atom chip is selling well, it's the ultra-low voltage Core 2 chips which the company makes real money from. The increased performance possible with such processors also helps prevent Intel's brand from being associated with a poor user experience – something which is inevitable if a user buys a netbook expecting it to be simply a small laptop.
Intel is likely to have a fight on its hands, however: despite the tendecy for more recent netbook releases to incorporate features – and pricing – more commonly seen in the laptop market, consumers have proven their love for the diminutive little devices time and time again. As sexy as a 13” ultra-slim is, buyers are going to have to ask themselves if it's really worth twice the price.
Do you think ultra-slim laptops are where the future is at, or has Otellini missed the entire point of netbooks by referring to 3D gaming? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums Reply...What. They're netbooks. Small, low power devices. Palm tops, almost.
How can anyone expect to game on them, or run Office 2007?
Ultra-thins are usually a core business segment and manufacturers are used to charging £1000+ for them. I don't really see how they're going to get them cheap enough to flog more of them.
I would imagine Intel makes a much better profit on them though....
"people can't game on cheap netbooks, so they might as well spend twice as much and be unable to game on an ultra-thin instead"
um... what? Ultra-Thins are sexy slabs of technology but they're far from worth the extra cost at the moment. Then again, I have no use for a notebook or netbook when I always have my Touch HD with me for portable use. Anything needing higher power I do on my desktop when I get home...
Perhaps ultra-thins will replace netbooks as we know it, but that won't happen until the price comes down and it's perhaps more of an evolution rather than a revolution. Right now they fill a market niche very well: small, low power devices which have adequate power for browsing the web, checking your email, perhaps watching videos (although not HD content) but crucially have a *very* attractive price. I'm more than chuffed with my Dell Mini 9, as it does what I need it to extremely well (the addition of a built-in HSDPA module is a godsend!) For everything else, I have a pretty capable desktop PC.
EDIT: Although Dell's relatively new Adamo is one very very sexy-looking piece of kit!
I'd happily pay a bit more for a slightly faster proc and higher res while keeping the form factor small.
1024x600 doesn't bother me - I'm used to it now - in fact the only site which causes a problem is Bit-tech! ;) Sometimes the banner ads on the right hand side overlap forum posts, meaning I can't read the full text. It's usually only on threads with large pictures embedded (such as project logs), and if I used Firefox I wouldn't be seeing banner ads at all ;)
Honestly, it doesn't matter what Intel or AMD say. People are going to buy want they want to buy and right now it's netbooks.
I can play wow on it, and by that I mean playable, not omfg framerates, but in the 15-30 fps range, which for an MMO is not abysmal to try to play with.
I have a full-size laptop with a decent screen resolution and I always grab my netbook before it. Unless i'm somewhere near a table or desk, the simple fact of not having a heavy-ass leg warmer on my lap is 1/2 the equation.
The other reason I bought a netbook was size. Ultra-thins may look nice, but they're just as bitchy to use on an airplane tray. I'm a writer, and I recently made a trip out to Utah (in May) and trying to work on the airplane with my laptop was amazingly uncomfortable. In UT I found the Acers on sale, and snagged one on the spot. Writing on the netbook for the duration of the 5-hour flight back to NC was like liquid sex. The netbook fit perfectly on the crappy little tray and I got a lot more accomplished.
I really get annoyed with these industry experts predicting crazes. People love netbooks because they're small, cheap, and have killer battery life. I got a 6-cell for my acer and it now rocks a 6-8 hour uptime.
The other thing is my laptop is a single core cpu, and hilariously the hyper-threading on the atom makes it a much stronger work computer. My motherboard and two sticks of ram died and i've been having to work off the portables, so I jacked my kb/mouse/monitor into the netbook and have been using it for work this week. Sadly my laptop has been sitting next to it for the single purpose of streaming netflix.
I plan on buying another Aspire with the 10.1" and a more solid GPU, then I'll upgrade it to max. RAM and a 500GB hdd. At that point ultrathins can kiss my bootimus. Leave the homoeroticism of thin-tops to apple, they've got the customer base that's ready to ignore functional practicality in the name of neato sexy tech gadgets made of fail.
There's ultra thin and there's "Where the **** did I leave my non-upgradable aluminium wafer and external DVD drive?"
I think Apple were on the right track, but had the wrong approach >.>
the only complaint I had is on battery, the power saving on the wireless card doesn't work correctly.. I had to turn it off- when it goes into hibernate and comes back- the card won't broadcast a signal anymore but it can see connections (so your wireless gets donked).. but this even happens on desktops- you would think acer would have caught that though.. up to 6 hours on the 6 cell battery
how can you beat that for the money.. like the guy with wow- it's not a bad gamer either.. mainly the guys with issues are the toolbags from the botnet :D
You can buy a full notebook for not much more that has far more power and speed. Add to it that netbooks are becoming more notebook like, more expensive and not running any faster, while normal notebooks are speeding up, and coming down in price... Netbooks are doomed.
You will have to pry my 13in ultra thin from my dead fingers. A netbook would just be pure frustration to me. Yes, I paid a lot more, but I also got a bigger HD, a DVD burner, a nicer screen, a whole lot more memory and I too have a 6 hour battery life while surfing. It's kind of like asking do you want an Emachine or a homebuilt gaming machine? Similar circumstances. Both will do basic computing, yet everyone here would opt for the homebuilt I'm sure. The only things netbooks have going for them is price and battery life, and neither are anything special that you can't get elsewhere.
Besides, carbon fiber is sexy.:D
tbh arguing notebooks and netbooks is like saying "yeah I paid a lot more for my honda civic, but I got four seats and a cd player and cupholder, while your motorcycle only seats two tops.
I can park my motorcycle on sidewalks and it gets more chicks. Carbon fiber is lose.
Arguing laptops and netbooks or notebooks and netbooks is silly. My post was voicing why I prefer my netbook to my laptop in every instance i've found. The keyboard is just as comfortable for me, and the screen is sharp and clear, so size isn't a real problem.
I push my netbook to it's limits all the time, and to be honest at the point which is starts to choke, I completely understand why. I think the major problem with netbooks getting a bad rap is people expect them to do things they're not designed to do. It's like when I read a newegg review on a pair of black speakers and someone lists "not white" in the "cons" section. Of course it's not!!
I get the same feeling when people say "yeah but the screen is so much smaller than my notebook!" Of course it is, or it wouldn't be what it is: a two-pound fully functional PC that fits inside my little backpack pocket (the one for steno pads and pens) and runs 8 hours on a single charge. If i drop a 9-cell in there i'm looking at 9-12 hours depending on wtf i'm doing. notebooks or to a greater extent laptops can't compete with a netbook in its sweet spots: size, battery life, and portability. Naturally on the inverse a netbook can't compete with the other two mobile PCs in the areas of screen real estate, expansion slots, internal drives, or high-power processors. I love the fact that i didn't need to budget to buy my acer, i was like HOT DAMN! and bought it on impulse. My work distributes P4 laptops and tbh my atom performs on the level with them for everything my job requires (Salesforce CRM, a php/xhtml dialer, a softphone, and gmail). I do all that while browsing forums all day and it runs fine. It only starts to choke if I toss a High Quality Youtube vid into the mix, so i just keep it to low-res youtube while working.
Back to my point: apples and oranges. Saying ultra-thins are going to kill netbooks is a stupid statement, because they're not the same item, they don't apply to the same markets. What will happen is intel and nvidia will release their platform, it will replace the atom and what you'll have a netbook that can play music all damn day on a single charge. I'm really excited to see compact low-power portables entering the market. I think they're their own market and have a good future ahead of them. There really isn't anything around that would be a "netbook killer" unless it's another netbook, making that statement entirely moot.
I'm going in circles...
It's
What I meant by my post is that basically notebooks and netbooks are more or less going to merge. The lines are going to, or already have, started to blur between them. In the end, Netbooks will be the losers.
How they see it... (based on conversations with my customers, which are FAR from geeks)
Notebooks;
Cost about the same.
A bigger screen is better.
A bigger keyboard is even better.
"No DVD/CD, how do I install my printer?"
"Where are the upgrade slots?" (mobile broadband is becoming an important consideration).
(on Linux versions) "Linux? Does that have Internet Explorer?" (some require it for work.)"
Offer them a thin cheap notebook and there is no way that they would buy a netbook. In fact, not one has bought a netbook yet as it is. Thinner and lighter just makes them more attractive to buyers.
I never said carbon fiber will bring girls to you. If you want my advice, ditch the motorcycle and get a puppy. Trust me, a puppy will beat anything with wheels for attracting girls.
The only downside is that I see my wife occasionally lean in to see details on the screen. I think for a lot of people size is a factor. One way or the other, they either want something portable, or something with a nice resolution. Personally I think 10" netbooks are the sweet spot. I actually like the fact there's no optical drive, cause I never use one (32GB flash drive ftw), and it's nice not having it drain battery (face it, the things chomp power).
I don't know where you work leslie, but it sounds like you work in retail. If that's the case then your customers most likely aren't buying netbooks because YOU aren't selling them. If you as the salesperson are pointing out the plusses of notebooks vs. netbooks then they're going to buy notebooks. People as consumers generally don't know what they want. "A laptop" is as specific as you generally get.
In almost every situation i'd prefer a netbook. The only exception would be watching a movie, where my dad's gigantic 17" widescreen would be ideal. But then, ofc, it's one dvd and the battery is shot >< Ultra-thins to me seem to have to many disadvantages of netbooks without the advantages of a notebook or laptop, and so they seem like just a great big netbook, in which case what's the point when it competes for space in my pack?
netbooks give me wood. Sorry but i'll argue them to death lol
I give my customers the facts, what I wrote above is their responses. A few could very well get by on one, one even used to own a 10in Sony (and misses it dearly, she cried when told it was dead) but absolutely refuses to buy a netbook because of no slots and no cd/dvd drive.
The no cd drive scares them, a lot. Drivers come on Cd's, and they have no clue how to go download drivers online, many don't even know you can do that. Without a drive, it means paying me or someone else to install anything they want. Software, printers, drivers, games...
You, knowing enough about computers can easily live without a dvd drive, they can't. Same for upgrade slots. They know they can slide in a broadband card, they don't want to have to open it up and change out a (mini pci-e) card. Yes, you could get an external drive and use it when needed, but again, these people don't know, and don't care. It's also just another thing they would have to buy. They want a notebook that works like a normal computer.
I agree netbooks have their place, but it's a niche and as notebooks drop in price and become more efficient, netbooks will die off.
By the way, many computers can power down a dvd drive when on batteries. Mine does.
I guess I don't notice their "pitfalls" the way other people do because they simply just do not affect me. I'm a fan of mapping network drives. My netbook is my desktop's card reader the way my desktop is my netbook's everything-it-doesn't-have.
I don't know where i'd be if I were suddenly smitten with the brain of a normal end-user. So I have to give it to you on that note.
This leaves us with one option: we must exterminate the noobs.
Noooooooooooooo!!!!! That would mean I would have to *gulp* get a real job. :'(
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oh wait....
Goddamnit, I forgot that Apple already has that niche covered. DAMN!
comparing a honda civic or any car for the matter to a motorcycle is like more like comparing a laptop to a pda/smartphone. a netbook would still be a car, just a very cheap one, like a smart car or a golf cart.
(ironically enough, posted from an iPhone)
An ultra thin laptop is just a laptop which is thin, which is of no benefit to the average consumer since (much cheaper) regular laptops are already plenty thin as far as I can make out. I mean, my 2 year old HP dv6330 isn't exactly cumbersome or inconvenient to carry around with me.
And then netbooks are low power devices designed for less intensive computing tasks such as word processing and web browsing on the move, and as such have better battery lives..
As far as I can tell, ultra thin laptops are pretty much already redundant... reserved only for the rich and style conscious.
I'd rather buy a regular laptop then. Better performance.
Only thing going for Atom is the longer battery life if you strictly use it for web surfing. And I guess netbooks were only meant for that (given the name).
http://www.laskys.com/computing/laptops_and_pdas/netbooks/