Netbooks get all the love…

posted by bill c_1 on June 23, 2008

Netbooks are hot and we’re seeing some nifty little systems like the MSI Wind, the Acer Aspire One, Asus EeePC 901, and others. These simple little Internet machines are going to be hot items especially when selling for as low as $399. John Morris did a nice little netbook roundup over at ZDNet http://blogs.zdnet.com/computers/?p=178.

Are these low cost mobiles just a fad, or are they here to stay? I think they’re here to stay. And we’re going to continue to see more innovation around the Intel Atom Processor and eventually, even lower cost devices over time. This is a good thing.

But amid the sexy new offerings from the OEMs in low-cost mobile, we shouldn’t forget about the netbook’s less-sexy cousin, the nettop. These basic desktop machines are also expected to begin rolling out later this year, also based on the Intel Atom Processor. Like the netbooks, nettops will be great for basic computing, Internet browsing, social networking, email, etc and should be priced affordably in the $300-350 range.

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4 Responses to Netbooks get all the love…

  1. David Bennett says:
    July 3, 2008 at 5:47 am

    Interesting time, and certainly a market creator in the making with Netbooks/Nettops. But one question I have is would people look at one of the devices more if they came with 3G WWAN embedded? Obviously cost could be an issue, but if WWAN could be added for very little extra $$ would this expand the reach/interest? It would certainly improve their useability.
    What would your views be?

  2. Bill Calder says:
    July 9, 2008 at 10:35 am

    I think you hit the nail on the head on cost. Most netbooks have optional wireless today and it certainly adds to the useability. Some have talked about adding WiMAX capability in the future. Each incremental feature adds to the so-called BOM (Bill of Materials) cost but I have no doubt that over time more and more features are going to be available and the manufacturers will want to differentiate their devices. It will only get better. But you have to rememeber these devices are limited mostly to Internet usages, content viewing, etc. If you want a full featured latoptop or desktop, you’ll want to move up.

  3. Netbook Computers Guru says:
    August 24, 2008 at 10:33 pm

    Buy inspired. Netbooks are here to stay. Thanks Intel!

  4. Karim Ahmed says:
    November 10, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    With cloud computing taking off, a netbook is all you need because all it has to do is run a browser and associated client-side programs. With the advent of technology such as Gears and Google Chrome we are already seeing these developments. We are going full circle back back to thin clients running *nix!