Dell, HP reducing 10in output
Industry sources have it that both Dell and HP are looking to reduce their presence in the 10" netbook market.
According to Digitimes, which quotes its usual anonymous sources in the notebook market, both companies will be producing a lower numbers of 10in netbooks with HP allegedly thinking about ceasing production altogether in favour of almost-as-portable but significantly higher performance 11.6in ultra-slim notebooks running AMD processors.
The main reason for these moves is, apparently, lower than expected profits from sales of netbooks based around Intel's Pine Trail platform - which is to say the vast majority of netbooks currently on the market. With netbooks having been previously considered the next big thing only for many manufacturers to bet on ultra-slim CULV notebooks instead, it could be that the form factor has finally fallen out of favour with the masses.
While lack of profits is certainly a good enough reason to exit a given market, it's also possible that HP and Dell are looking ahead to the next next big thing: with Apple's iPad looming large - and receiving generally positive reviews, could the companies be looking to convert their 10" netbook expertise to the slate form factor?
Do you think that the netbook still has a place in the market, or has it been ousted by ultra-slim notebooks and slate devices? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyAs you can see, the utility factor is pretty low. I like gadgets, they just have to make sense.
Well, that's you
I have my desktop at home, and pretty much bring my netbook everywhere. In part because I don't have a smartphone, or any other real mobile gadgets, I use it as a calendar, for note taking, listening to music, watching movies/videos, homework on breaks, and light coding for my programming class.
It has effectively increased my efficiency at school 2 or 3 fold from when I was doing everything on paper or trying to get time in one of our extremely crowded computer labs.
i suppose its all down to the individual and the context in which the netbook is required. Its a shame though, i have an eeepc not a dell or Hp :P
Some people like to get work done in the hour+ it takes them to get to work. ;)
What has surprised me about netbooks has been their steady increase in size, since the main purpose was supposed to be portability. I'm more interested in smaller systems that could fit into a pocket like the PsiXPDA or the UMID mbook BZ.
A friend of mine has an Eee PC 900, which has a very low power Atom processor, practically no graphics chipset to speak of, no moving parts beyond a fan and is tiny and light and runs for a thousand thousand centuries on a single charge. It is a truly copacetic little device, even though does insist on running Ubuntu on it so half its features don't work properly. That's a "netbook".
The current crop - possibly because of the staggering price increases on flash - seem to universally use mechanical hard disks, but also have bigger, cleverer processors, bigger, cleverer graphics chips, gigabytes of RAM, and all manner of features which make them draw enormous quantities of power and generally Not Be Netbooks. Instead, these are better termed "Really Bad Laptops".
No wonder they didn't sell.
I have my PC at home for gaming and "stuff". And when I am mobile, I have my HTC Desire which is brilliant for browsing on the move. I dont need to type documents while traveling to work, since I drive to work it would be a bit dangerous anyway.
I guess the people who find netbooks useful are just not enough to keep the product going on a large scale.
I dont buy into the slate form factor either. It is a fun gadget, but really its just a big smart phone, and also its a netbook without a physical keyboard.
Mostly for couch-bed-kitchen surfing.
for this it mostly needed to be dirt-cheap, and have a long battery life.
When Asus as a renowned company sell me one for 250 (1001p with XP), or Samsung as a renowned company sell me one for 300 (N150 with Win7) why didn't I buy a Dell or a HP?
I really, really liked the HP mini 10. but it has an ultraglossy screen. (even worse than most)
Dell...the Mini 10 in exactly the same config as the Asus costs 30 more, and I couldn't see it anywhere in real life before.
A Pad-shape would be interesting though...the hybrid-netbook-tabletts are just too expensive.
With 50% more power even I would have bought one, but as things are, no thanks.