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How Long Before You Dumped Your Netbook Into Garbage?

By Krishnan Subramanian on October 14, 2009

Michael Dell, founder of Dell,told an audience at Churchill Club that the infatuation with Netbooks only lasts for 36 hours

 ”If you take a user who’s used to a 14- or 15-inch notebook and you say ‘Here’s a 10-inch netbook,’ they’re gonna say ‘Hey, this is so fantastic. It’s so cute. It’s so light. I love it,’” Dell told Silicon Valley’s tech-obsessed Churchill Club during an appearance Tuesday night. “But about 36 hours later, they’re saying ‘The screen’s gonna have to go. Give me my 15-inch screen back.’”

Well, I both agree and disagree with his comment. I do agree that people lose interest in netbooks very soon. I, myself, was guilty of such a thing when I bought a 8.9 inch one. I just didn’t like the keyboard and gave up fast. However, I had a different experience when I checked out the 12 inch netbook Zoli had sometime back. I found it very comfortable and liked it very much (didn’t buy it because its hard disk speed was slow then).

I think the so called disillusionment with netbooks happens due to many different reasons. Some of them are

  1. SaaS is yet to evolve into the natural app choice. People still cling on to bulky resource hungry desktop apps.
  2. The very design of netbooks is terrible. They have just taken a laptop and miniaturized it without even realizing that the user experience of a miniaturized laptop will be terrible over a long term usage. That is why the rumored Apple tablet is exciting. A netbook should offer an altogether different user experience not a restricted version of Laptop experience. A clunky keyboard and, usually, a terrible OS from the desktop era are not the right choices in my opinion.
  3. Many consumers consider netbook to be their laptop or desktop replacement. It is not. It is a replacement of laptop during travel.
  4. A good netbook is still expensive to be considered as an additional gadget.
  5. With the proliferation of smartphones and iphones, a light weight device for travel becomes redundant.

Well, what do you think? Do you think netbooks have a future or it is just a fad going away fast?

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Krish is an analyst and researcher focussed on high impact topics in the areas such as Cloud Computing, Open Source and the interface between them. Krish also evangelizes Open Source and Cloud Computing on various media outlets, public speaking and blogs. Krish is part of a boutique analyst firm that offers strategic advise to both Cloud Computing and Open Source vendors. They also help buy side businesses take advantage of Open Source and Cloud Computing. More information about Krish and his research can be found in his personal website. Krish's disclosure statement is available here.

One response to “How Long Before You Dumped Your Netbook Into Garbage?”

  1. Walter Riker
    Walter Riker October 14, 2009 at 3:24 pm |

    I think that Michael Dell may have missed the boat on this one as far as I am concerned. I am writing this on an HP Mini using the Verizon EVDO card and I LOVE IT! I have the ultimate desktop and a notebook/laptop that are very powerful and very good but for taking it along my netbook goes everywhere. I have been using it for 4 months and on a daily basis. It has a 10.1 inch screen and is a wonderful tool. To clarify; I purchased my first desktop in 1981 (IBM PC) and since have owned many both personal and in businesses so I am not new to this and I knew what I was doing when I purchased this but did not realize I would absolutely fall in love with it – well second to my wife.