The popularity of the blessed curse of the PC industry, the netbooks, just keeps on rising. DisplaySearch has published it latest quarterly report on the state of the notebook market, and conclude that netbook popularity is rising, but at the cost of revenues.
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Member since:2007-02-17
Think horse carriages. When cars became the prevailant form of transport, the owners of horse carriages were screaming - of course. But who cares? Like nobody? - There is three options for PC makers:
1) Stop making PCs, get a new hobby altogether instead.
2) Stop making PCs, make netbooks and other more fashionable items instead.
3) Keep making PCs in such a way that people are still interested in buying them.
Hey wait, did I just sum up the workings of a free market in three easy to remember bullet points? Some PC makers defo need to read Osnews forums more often!
Beautiful. Spot on. Suppliers need to supply whatever people want and need, and not whatever would make suppliers a fatter profit.
Now if we could only get people apply this same sensible thinking to the OS and application software as well.
Edited 2009-10-09 10:19 UTC
Member since:2009-08-18
"Beautiful. Spot on. Suppliers need to supply whatever people want and need, and not whatever would make suppliers a fatter profit."
Sometimes the public doesn't know what it needs until you give it to them. A good example of this is multitouch.
Without it, I was very content. With it, I'm even more so. But to get multi-touch, it require some research and development.... something that is difficult to fund when you're at a constant race towards the bottom profit-wise.
Multi-touch may not be the most ideal example because it's development wasn't designed for a single company's specific product. but you get the idea.
Companies making profits... even large, or even gigantic ones are not a bad thing.
If that company applies some of those profits to increased R&D, then things only get better.
Edited 2009-10-09 20:27 UTC
Member since:2009-05-20
Care to explain once again what makes these so-called netbooks so different from so-called personal computers?
From what I see, there is absolutely no difference except (a) size, (b) price, (c) power consumption, (d) either low performing or low-quality internal parts.
All points are highly welcome, but at the end, these are just PCs, smaller but still.
Member since:2005-08-28
I think the differentiation between a netbook and a notebook is that the netbook is biased toward small and cheap (and, increasingly, long battery life) while normal laptops are focused on some combination of performance, thinness, and features.
Of course, that's all a bit vague; if people didn't care about Netbook performance we wouldn't have the N280 and Ion; if people didn't care about inexpensive or long battery life on laptops we wouldn't have the Acer Timeline series or the ASUS Ux0 series.
For now I think the only real distinction is whether they're allowed to have Windows XP installed by Microsoft's definition. I suspect the real definition is more based on how the manufacturer arrived at the specs and marketing campaign, than what the specs actually are.
Member since:
2006-11-24
if the market does not want PCs, then there is no point in making any.
Think horse carriages. When cars became the prevailant form of transport, the owners of horse carriages were screaming - of course. But who cares? Like nobody? - There is three options for PC makers:
1) Stop making PCs, get a new hobby altogether instead.
2) Stop making PCs, make netbooks and other more fashionable items instead.
3) Keep making PCs in such a way that people are still interested in buying them.
Hey wait, did I just sum up the workings of a free market in three easy to remember bullet points? Some PC makers defo need to read Osnews forums more often!