Hardware
Another Study Says Netbooks on the Decline
It seems like hardly a day goes by that we don’t see a new study that says Netbooks are on the decline. And of course we have one today. Most of the recent ones focus on the iPad, but this latest one suggests that Netbooks are being squeezed from both the iPad and Notebooks. This Retrevo study also includes this statement in its conclusion:
Intel recently claimed netbooks, were going to sell well in countries like Mexico and India where they may serve as primary computers. However, don’t expect to see the record growth continue for netbook sales in the U.S. As consumers find the iPad irresistible and inexpensive laptops more practical we predict netbook sales will get squeezed from two sides and will not be able to maintain past growth rates. That said, netbooks should continue to get cheaper and faster and will continue to be an attractive alternative to laptops or other mobile Internet devices.
Interesting.
GoodThings2Life
05/26/2010 at 5:50 am
I’ve always felt that netbooks were pointless and were going to be little more than a fad, so I was certainly surprised to see them seemingly thrive for so long (and yet, I’ve yet to see one in public anywhere I’ve gone).
I agree with the attitude that more people will choose inexpensive notebooks and tablets because they’re just more practical than a netbook.
Netbook guru
05/26/2010 at 5:54 am
Netbooks are not new and anyone willing to get a netbook has already got one.
So if we still focus on growth rates its just darn stupid.
Lets wait and see the growth of iPad after two years. I can bet that all these assumptions will come wrong.
How many of you agree to my statement?
Strodtbeck
05/26/2010 at 7:56 am
Funny, I read several articles just yesterday that stated just the opposite. It seems like anything about the iPad is trying to convince people that it is replacing netbooks & notebooks while other studies show netbooks growth is still strong and any decrease in that growth is due to the drop in price of low priced notebooks. In other words, netbooks are still selling well and increasing volume and as the CPU for these little guys gets better they become more attractive because they have a “real” OS in them. . . . but then tomorrow we will have hype about the iPad and how it is gobbling up smartphones, notebooks, netbooks, and desktops. . . most all these studies are, how should I put it, horrible research ;)
Roberto
05/26/2010 at 3:20 pm
I bought my wife a netbook with Windows 7 on it a couple of months ago for school work and she loves it. She’s getting to 7 to 8 hours on the battery. She can take notes on Word, and for class PowerPoint all she has to do is stick in the USB drive and she has it right on her screen. For presentations she just plugs it into the projector in the class and presents. She can also hook up the printer through USB, can web research (flash sites included, while whatever we think of flash the reality is it is what’s being used) while writing papers, and on and on and on. Speed seems fine to me. 300 bucks for the netbook and another 70 for memory upgrade and it fits in her purse.
I-Pad would not work for this so I would be wondering what kind of questions they are really asking. And before I start getting all the Apple fanatics on me about i-pad does have a presentation software & whatnot, everyone at her school uses Office and that’s what she wants to use. Frankly when my kids get older and will need their own computers I would definitely consider a netbook. Its cheap, works well and does a lot of things.
AP
05/26/2010 at 5:00 pm
Just an FYI
Total number of netbooks sold so far starting in 2008
2008 – 16.4 million
2009 – 33.3 million
2010 – 39.7 million (estimated)
Grand total = 89.4 million
I don’t see how 1 million ipad sale would have a major impact on netbook sales.