News Dell, HP reducing 10in output

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2010/04/02/dell-hp-reducing-10-inch-ouput/1

 

I never bought into the netbook craze. People bought it because they thought it was the 'next big thing' and it was the latest gadget that had people crazy. Unfortunately, these criteria do not result in sustainable sales. Sustainable sales are derived from utility, which netbooks lack. If I'm at home and I need to work, I'll work on my laptop or my pc. If I'm on the bus/train, I should have had my work done last night, and if I wanted entertainment on the go then I'd rather use an iphone/ipod. At university, if I want meaningful work done then I'm on the school's computers or my laptop. If I want entertainment at school, I shouldn't, and if I go ahead and browse/play on the netbook, the experience isn't as enjoyable as on a bigger screen.

As 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.

 

On the other hand i bought into the netbook craze last summer with the sole purpose of using it as a notetaking device in lectures at university. It has filled that criteria very well as the battery life has allowed me to use it all day and only charge it at home when i get back. There i can sync it up to OneNote on my desktop I think they are good for watching tv shows/movies whilst on the train , for me the iphone/pod/smartphone screens are just too small. I do agree with the fact that the non technological families buying them to replace their laptops would have got quite a shock due to its lack of horsepower.

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

 

Some people like to get work done in the hour+ it takes them to get to work.

 

I picked up a Flybook 3 years ago (just before the whole "netbook" thing started) and also use a Psion netBook (the original...).

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.

 

I'm still perfectly happy with my Eee PC 4G Surf, it's given me the least issues out of any hardware purchase in recent history..

 

I love my netbook, because of its battery life and the things u can do on it. Used mine for all sorts of stuff, not just typing documents, but also programming, virtual machines, networking and all the other stuff related to my course at Uni. Having few Dell laptops before, I must say they are great quality and also dell have great support and services, but for a netbook I went for Samsung N110, because it looks a lot better than any netbook from Dell and also is a bit cheaper.

 

Personally, i've never seen the point of netbooks, but i suppose the likes of Samsung and Asus have cornered the market in a significant way, which has affected sales elsewhere.

 

I'll give you a 10" output

 

I'll buy one if someone can make one that's fast. All the ones I've used are painfully slow and not worth my money.

 

It's just a shame they're all Atom powered. If there was a half decent one with a VIA nano I might think about it.

 

Very handy on the go, doing anything more than reading news sites on the iphone can get a bit tedious so a netbbok tethered by bluetooth to an iphone in your pocket is a comfortable alternative. Also seeing as i travel everywhere on motorbikes the small size is great for packing and weight reduction in a rucksak. Mine toured italy with me and was used for staying in touch, entertainment as well as for storing video footage from each days riding. id be worried about the large exposed screen on an ipad in these circumstances. I agree whole heartedly that the performance is crap, video playback is about the top of its performance ceiling and i also agree that samsung and asus pretty much own the market, samsungs early move to full size keyboard with a slick finish on the nc10 was a winner for me. I notice newer models feel a lot cheaper

 

Perhaps they weren't selling because they weren't really netbooks.

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 wouldnt buy a netbook simply because it wouldnt be useful in my lifestyle.
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.

 

I just bought a netbook.

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.

 

It's no wonder they don't sell well, painfully slow and too heavy.

With 50% more power even I would have bought one, but as things are, no thanks.

 

netbooks rocks - I'm getting one soon .. They'll have a market for the forseeable future I think - people will always want a simple web-surfer for travel.