electronrun.com

A month ago I wrote an post titled 5 questions posed by the arrival of netbooks, in which two of the five questions were:

• Why traditional notebooks are so expensive?
• What distinguishes netbooks from laptops apart from size?

Apparently these two questions are becoming a major headache for big PC manufacturers and are destined to keep them occupied for some time to come. Big names like Sony, HP, Dell or Fujitsu-Siemens are saying that PC margins are already at their lower limit and the new entrants will shrink them to the extent that their sales might not be profitable any more. Reactions are taking two roads. There is those that join the new segment with new models, effectively becoming part of the new trends and supporting hopes of new growth. Then again there is those like Fujitsu-Siemens and Sony that at the moment do nothing but criticize the lighter and much cheaper machines…

Netbook sales in 2007 were of the order of 0.5 million units, but predictions for 2011 talk about 9 million units! If that is not growth, then what is? I have the impression that companies like HP and Dell that join the train now, will be much better equipped than those waiting to see what happens next. With current models mostly in the €300-€400 range, netbooks have become irresistible. Asus has started a new segment and is now joined mainly by smaller, mostly Taiwanese hardware companies that were up to now the PC underdogs limited to the supply of components -like for example mainboards- for the big names. This of course is not liked by the elite, as the laptop market has been a goldmine that appeared to be growing for ever.

Netbooks have upset things so much that Intel has joined the party with its Atom processors -among four other CPU suppliers- and king Microsoft has been forced to prolong the use of Windows XP in order to compete with Linux and not stay away from a potentially huge market. Are these names not heavy enough to make the netbook intrusion convincing?

Moreover, if netbooks can be so attractive and at the same time cost a fraction of a laptop, why cannot the same be done with desktops? Netbook suppliers are almost ready for their next step, net-top machines that will be dead cheap. Nothing makes their success guaranteed, but it is a good sign of the self-esteem and confidence gained from netbooks… A very common criticism is that netbooks are web surfing machines and nothing more. But with the use of capable OS software and the continuing development of solid-state storage media, netbooks could well become replacements for laptops, like laptops have already replaced for many the desktop…

[ElectronRun - 5 questions posed by the arrival of netbooks]

[ElectronRun - 5 reasons the Macbook stands no chance against netbooks]

[New York Times]