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Netbooks: Time to say no?

Something interesting is happening in the consumer notebooks market – and it's something that has implications for the enterprise market too.

By Stuart Andrews, 30 Sep 2009 at 10:12

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While the netbook invasion that has so successfully disrupted the old budget notebook market is far from finished, there are definite signs that the honeymoon period is over.

Let's put this in perspective. 13.5 million netbooks were sold in the first half of this year, according to market analysts Canalys, making manufacturer projections of 25 to 30 million sales for 2009 overall seem perfectly feasible. Even if a proportion of these are being sold by telecoms providers alongside mobile broadband contracts, the netbook's killer combination of accessible pricing, slick design and high mobility won't lose its grip for some time to come.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean that every netbook customer is a satisfied one. A June survey by US analysts NPD noted that only 58 per cent of customers surveyed who had purchased a netbook instead of a notebook were happy with their purchase.

The reason? Some 60 per cent of netbook buyers had bought one in the belief that it offered identical functionality to a notebook, which – as anyone who has ever used Microsoft Office on an Atom-powered netbook will tell you – is clearly not the case. A report by Biz360, surveying customer responses on online stores in the US, came to similar conclusions. In May, Intel executive vice president Sean Maloney admitted that confusion between netbooks and notebooks was an issue, and that some netbook vendors who were blurring the lines were getting return rates as high as 30 per cent.

Some major industry players think they have an answer. Dell, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo and Samsung, amongst others, are all producing ultra-portable notebooks based on Intel's new CULV processors: a line adapting the existing Core architecture into a smaller, less power hungry form factor.

While the likes of Acer and Samsung claim that CULV notebooks won't compete directly with atom-powered netbooks, there's no question that the cheaper, smaller CULV notebooks - those with 11.6in screens, such as Dell's Inspiron 11z or Samsung's X120 - will be going head to head with the more upscale Atom-powered netbooks, including Toshiba's £360 NB200 or Asus' £370 EEEPC 1008HA 'Seashell'. If consumers want a netbook that looks and feels more like an executive laptop they can have one, but why bother when a small price premium will get you a CULV model with netbook-like mobility, but notebook-like performance.

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2 comments

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Netbook market distorted by Microsoft

The Netbook market was clearly defined from the outset -- a low power, compact laptop usable for basic tasks and running a light OS with web and wifi connectivity. Then Microsoft stepped in after realising that it was being left behind. Microsoft, of course, is well known for producing slow, bloated OSs; each new version being more power hungry that the previous version. The only chance that Microsoft had of getting into the market was to resurrect XP, an OS that it had told us it was withdrawing support from.

@Stuart Andrews: "Some 60 per cent of netbook buyers had bought one in the belief that it offered identical functionality to a notebook, which – as anyone who has ever used Microsoft Office on an Atom-powered netbook will tell you".

Well, you've answered your own question. Netbooks were never designed to run power-hungry Microsoft bloatware.

By 6tricky9 on Friday Oct 2

Netbooks aren't supposed to be Notebooks

The problem is that Netbooks are not supposed to be Notebooks. If you need a Notebook to do real work then buy one and you want it to be small and light pay some more.

What annoys me is that I was in PC World when they first arrived and an assistant was selling a Mum a Netbook for her boy to use for school. Thankfully I saved the day and took her to one side and convinced her that the 17in Toshiba Laptop on offer was more practical, ergonomic, could give her boy all the functionality needed for homework and multimedia.

There was a clear distinction Netbook = small cheap device with network connectivity It is the industry that has created this problem instead of developing the Netbook to better value it’s been creeping upwards to above £300 so we are left to keep the Notebook and wait 15 minutes for Windows to become useful just as I enter the first tunnel.

These are devices for on the move, the device that is ready to use in 20 seconds. All you need is a quick OS and a compatible browser. The Netbook problem is that cloud computing has simply not caught on. Come on Google Wave.

What I really wanted from the Netbook craze was the sub £100 Netbook so I could have a universal device in each room to stream internet music, as a controller etc. So hopefully there will be loads around second-hand very soon.

By DaveM on Tuesday Oct 20