Netbooks (tiny laptops that are mainly functional for little beyond web use (internet + notebook = netbook)) are all the rage right now, as noted yesterday by Michael Gartenberg’s post on Amazon’s Bestselling Computer page.
The concept behind the success comes from three main factors:
- Dirt cheap ($300 - 500)
- Super portable (7-10″ screens and generally less than 4lbs)
- Seriously, DIRT CHEAP!
The netbook price point is so significantly lower than standard laptops, it’s a new paradigm of computing. I know you can do this simple math too, but think about what a $300 laptop means.
$300 is the same price as a new 16gb iPhone 3G. It’s about half the price of most new high-powered smartphones. It’s less than 1/3rd of the cheapest Apple computer out there and about 1/6 the price of Apple’s base model MacBook Air (similarly targeted as an easily portable, lightweight machine). It’s cheaper than most monitors. About 40% cheaper than Dell’s cheapest desktop (and yes, Dell makes a Netbook now too, and it’s pretty awesome).
The minuscule price is an enormous selling point. So enticing that I actually bought one (picked up an Asus eeePC for around $300 last January). But the low price comes at a cost (what a stupid sentence… sorry about that).
After spending only $300 on a laptop, it’s very, very difficult to justify accessories. An additional batter for $65? Well that’s over 20% of the computer itself! No way. An external hard drive to back up data- $100… um, that’s 1/3rd the cost. Hell, even an external keyboard and mouse combo (necessary because of the tiny keyboard) - $80? That’s just too much.
Similarly, $300 makes other products seem ridiculous. Let’s take UMPCs (ultra mobile personal computers - the next step smaller than netbooks) or MIDs (mobile internet devices). These tiny, but awesome little devices do pretty much the same thing as netbooks, but are just a little smaller and generally have a touchscreen - are basically more powerful PDAs. Unfortunately, UMPCs also cost about 3-10x the price of a netbook! Sure, tiny is cool, but is it ten times as cool!? And don’t even get me started on the Less Function for More Money Foleo or the Celeo Redfly… seriously: don’t.
And what about PDAs (which we’ll assume are part of a phone… because who uses a PDA anymore?) - as mentioned above, most high-powered devices cost significantly more than a netbook. Yes, they add the ability to call people… but should your phone cost more than your laptop?
(For size reference: PDA < MID < UMPC < Netbook < Breadbox < Laptop < Desktop)
To try something new today, I want to open this up. I’m not going to conclude anything.
So, there is no doubt that netbooks are selling like sugar-coated hot cakes, but what I want to know is: where is this trend going? Will netbooks drive down the price of other electronics? Will the fad pass and more functional laptops prevail? Will everyone buy tiny laptops and the market for full-sized devices disappear?
What do you think?
December 6th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Question for you Z that sort of leads to my answer, “where is the trend going” - how often do you use your netbook? I remember you loving it the first couple months you got it b/c…well it was a new electronic toy and it doesn’t matter what you buy, if it’s new and requires electricity, it’s always fun at first. But how often are you using it now, especially since you just purchased the new HTC Fuzion Frenzy. I believe you bought the netbook to blog wherever you go, but now that you have an even more powerful mobile device you can do your short-blogging from you phone and longer-blogging using an actual keyboard. If I had to bet, I’d say you never blog from your netbook anymore.
So the point - the concept is cool, but the functionality isn’t fantastic with phones doing more and more these days, internet surfing not as enjoyable as you want it to be and any sort of word processing difficult b/c of the size of the keyboard. I don’t think the netbook is capable of replacing laptops b/c of there lack of applicable use.
The term, “full-sized device” is an interesting one. What qualifies a device as, full-sized? It seems the definition is ever evolving.
You’d have to think though that they will start influencing laptop prices.
December 8th, 2008 at 8:44 am
@Drew-
Phenomenal. I actually laughed out loud at the “HTC Fuzion Frenzy” comment - and that’s inspired an upcoming blog post on The Stupid Naming of Devices.
But yes, you’re right and there are a few things I didn’t disclose in writing the netbook post:
1. I bought my eee PC for just over $300 - then spent almost another $300 upgrading it to make it functional.
2. I use my netbook ONLY as a web browser. I keep it next to my bed so I can look stuff up easily… I can also do this on my phone- and sometimes don’t want to wait the 20 seconds it takes to boot up my computer… so I do only use my phone.
3. The initial plan of using my netbook as a Blog Anywhere device… worked for about two months. I haven’t moved the netbook out of my apartment in about four months - even though it pretty much fits in my pocket.
SO - you’re right. The concept is cool - but the functionality isn’t quite what I want it to be. Maybe I’m a better candidate for a UMPC - OR a 12″ laptop (or both?) - but the 7″ netbook just isn’t what I wanted it to be.
But hey- once I can get a 12″ lappy for $300- you bet I’ll have one.
December 16th, 2008 at 8:52 am
[...] three days after posting this comment about how I don’t fully utilize my 10 month old eee PC, it was stolen from my bedside table [...]
January 17th, 2009 at 6:40 am
A kid in my program installed autocad on one of these and used it as his primary machine… Total disaster, absolute crash and burn. That said, I want one more than I knew before reading your post…