The Rise Of The Netbook
Piers Fawkes writes on electronics & gadgets for Good Ideas Salon. Here is his piece on Netbooks:
An article by John Gapper in the Financial Times argues that US tech companies ignored the netbook as they didn’t want to cannibalize the market for larger laptops and PCs. As he charts the rise of the hardware, Gapper says they ignored signals of netbook use in Japan and the early indication given by the popularity of the idea behind the One Laptop Per Child project; and that they even still have the arrogance to think that they can steer the market.
[The development of the netbook] took a long time because some companies preferred netbooks not to succeed. The three-way alliance among Microsoft, Intel and Dell instead preferred laptops to become more powerful and run on fancier versions of Windows….The big US companies would only produce tiny tablets and miniature keyboard devices because they did not want to undermine laptop sales. Netbook-sized devices thrived in Japan but were expensive.
It took Asustek to break the oligopoly’s grip by making what I – and many others, it turns out – wanted. As soon as it did, all the other computer makers, from Acer to Dell and HP, surrendered.
This coincided with Microsoft’s moment of hubris with the bloated and troubled Windows Vista, which required lots of memory and a powerful chip. To beat off Linux, Microsoft had to let netbooks run Windows XP instead.
Microsoft and Intel are still trying to corral netbooks by defining them as a third type of device in addition to desktops and laptops. Intel popularised the term netbook and Microsoft sets strict memory and screen limits for licences.
Consumers are not listening. An IDC study in May found that netbook owners, far from regarding them as devices for connecting to the internet and little else, do not differentiate. “People are using them almost identically to traditional laptops,” says Mr O’Donnell… Consumers must be given a choice, however, before they can express their preference. For providing it, the Asus Eee wins my prize.
http://www.psfk.com/2009/07/the-rise-of-the-netbook.html
