November 28, 2008 4:00 AM PST
Intel rethinks Netbooks: 'Fine for an hour' but...
The Netbook, take two: When Advanced Micro Devices said it wasn't going to focus on Netbooks, as Intel and its partners defined them, maybe it was on to something.
Intel is re-evaluating the Netbook market as possibly not The Next Big Thing. This from the company that makes the Atom processor and accompanying silicon that go into most of the Netbooks sold today.
HP Mini Netbook 1030NR: the next big thing?
(Credit: Best Buy)At a recent Raymond James IT Supply Chain Conference (streamed via this Intel page), Stu Pann, vice president in the sales and marketing group at Intel, said his company sees the Netbook differently now.
"We originally thought Netbooks would be for emerging markets and younger kids, and there is some of that. It turns out the bulk of the Netbooks sold today are Western Europe, North America, and for people who just want to grab and go with a notebook," Pann said. "We view the Netbook as mostly incremental to our total available market," he added.
And the most revealing statement? "If you've ever used a Netbook and
used a 10-inch screen size--it's fine for an hour. It's not something
you're going to use day in and day out."
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Why would Intel take this position?
1. They didn't really plan for netbooks to be a popular as a second PC, but more for kids and emerging markets.
2. They are poo-pooing netbooks because there is less profit in them.
3. They have a lot of bigger duo-core processors sitting around that need a home.
Do you think the media is making more out of Pann's statement than it should?
Netbooks are evolving and are here to stay.
That's why I posted this up!! It's a bit of a curiosity to me as well so, I would tend to agree w/your viewpoint.
Still, Intel have recently taken on a 'closer relationship' with the Taiwanese vendors as well as consumers to better understand what the true 'unmet needs' are.
To me that means they are taking a 'step away' from their OEM relationship with Microsoft with an inclination to research and development geared towards Linux and Linux-embedded products.
Thank you for your feedback!
--Dietrich
Intel is probably right, whether it's also self-serving or not. A 10" screen and similarly cramped keyboard don't make for a good user experience. I tote a 6.5 pound HP laptop on the train every day, along with charger and spare battery that add another pound or two. I paid $600 for it. I would not trade it for a 2-lb netbook if the netbook were free.
Now if you want to talk about a full-sized screen and keyboard, with an Atom processor, 16 or 32 gigs of flash memory instead of a hard disk, and dramatically improved battery life, you might have something. But the price point for that machine wouldn't be terribly different from this one.
I'm also on the board of a parochial grade school. We're considering a traditional computer lab/library, a pile of laptops, and a pile of netbooks as options for how students will use the network/internet at school. We're still working through the issues, but at this point it looks like the traditional lab, with a few laptops for teachers, is probably the best from a cost/usefulness perspective. Do you really want the kids learning to touch type on a netbook keyboard?
m00tpoint