Netbook Industry Shutting Down After Being Squeezed by iPad and MacBook Air

[notjustjay]

Originally Posted by Small White Car

So it turns out that the only difference between a MacBook Air and a Netbook was they one was small and good and one was small and bad. And this outcome shocks who?

I love how the tech press kept trying to convince us that, "oh no no, they're totally different categories!"

I do remember being shocked at how inexpensive they were. Previously the only way to get a tiny laptop was to buy an ultraportable, like the Sony X505, which was in the $3000 range. Suddenly there was this new market for tiny laptops that cost $200-500.

Obviously it took a lot of shortcutting to get there, but I was (and still am) very surprised that it was even possible to drive the price point that low.

[Drich290195]

cant wait to see the back of the chrome ultra book. Here in the uk we are being plugged with adds on tv at the moment kill it now steve.

[rjohnstone]

Originally Posted by dojoman

Not just netbook, Ultrabook line will be dead soon. No one wants to pay over 1k for Windows notebook.

Oh really?
NetBooks were crap from day 1.
UltraBooks are full power in a light weight package.

What do you think the MacBook Air is? It's an UltraBook.
And they cost a small fortune if you want one with decent storage.

[carmenodie]

Can I get an amen!!!!
Hummmmmmmmmm.......

[jclardy]

I originally bought a netbook years ago because I wanted a small, portable laptop.

The cramped keyboard, 1" diagonal trackpad with buttons on the sides, horrible battery life, and terrible atom processor made me regret it. Luckily it only cost me $250 at the time.

Then Apple revamped the Air, released the 11" and lowered the price. I have been happily using my Air ever since. Full size keyboard, huge trackpad, i5 processor, enough RAM, ultra fast SSD (compared to the 4200 RPM iPod hard drive in my netbook) and 5 hours of battery life. Best computer I have ever owned.

4x the cost but totally worth it considering how much I use it.

[Rogifan]

Heh, I remember when the first iPad came out all these tech journalists going on and on about how their netbook was so much better.

[Tubamajuba]

Originally Posted by GoodWatch

And baaaaahhhhhh go all the sheep.......

OH NO!!! NETBOOKS ARE DEAD!!! WHO WILL SAVE US FROM CRAPPLE, THE EVIL CORPORATION THAT FORCES ALL OF US TO BUY IPADS AND MACBOOKS!?!?!?!

There. Is that better?

Seriously, this is a forum about Apple and their products. If being around people who bring up what Steve Jobs correctly said about netbooks bothers you, you might consider one of the billions of websites that aren't dedicated to Apple.

[Rogifan]

Originally Posted by Peace

Kinda like samsung eh ?

Image

What is it with Samsung and their brushed fake looking metal. Fugly.

[tirk]

Originally Posted by rjohnstone

UltraBooks are full power in a light weight package.

Except for the crap screen resolution...

What do you think the MacBook Air is? It's an UltraBook.

Only in terms of screen resolution. Hopefully fixed soon.

[waa1futs]

Sorry to say but this category isn't going away anytime soon.

The main idea behind netbooks were devices that have:
1) Long battery life
2) Ultra-portable
3) Inexpensive

The Asus VivoTab RT has these exact qualities:
1) 16 hours of battery with detachable keyboard dock
2) 10 inch ultrabook portability
3) Only $300 total for tablet AND dock

Not to mention its beautiful SuperIPS+ display with 600 nits of brightness and being able to run Microsoft Office.

[Gemütlichkeit]

Before I even knew Steve said anything about netbooks I said something similar.


never understood netbooks.

[Rogifan]

Originally Posted by Drich290195

Again steve nailed it very much an inovater the world is going to be a less fun place

In Walter Isaacson's Jobs bio he claims it was Jony Ive who suggested Apple's netbook not have a physical keyboard:

The tablet project got a boost in 2007 when Jobs was considering ideas for a low-cost netbook computer. At an executive team brainstorming session one Monday, Ive asked why it needed a keyboard hinged to the screen; that was expensive and bulky. Put the keyboard on the screen using a multi-touch interface, he suggested. Jobs agreed. So the resources were directed to revving up the tablet project rather than designing a netbook.

[kevinfulton.ca]

Originally Posted by rjohnstone

Oh really?
NetBooks were crap from day 1.
UltraBooks are full power in a light weight package.

What do you think the MacBook Air is? It's an UltraBook.
And they cost a small fortune if you want one with decent storage.

The problem is that Apple started that category with the Macbook Air. Then everybody followed. As a result, many consumers (not all of them of course) compare these Ultrabooks to the MBA (which many consider the benchmark). Real Ultrabooks with SSD's are not that much less then an MBA so many people would spend the few bucks extra to get the "benchmark". It's the same thing that happened with the iPad. There's tons of other options on the market, but what do they all get compared to? The iPad.

[robanga]

The category was short lived but it rose pretty high before it died quickly. The pricing pressure that netbooks put an industry already under mounting pressure from Apple and about to experience the tablet market was pretty incredible. No wonder they call it the post-pc era.

Now the industries answers are things like ultrabooks (their interpretations of the Air running Windows), the Microsoft Surface and Surface RT and Android tablets. To be fair, there are still swiveling screens and pivoting screen devices that seek to innovate but this is no longer a industry to be envied.

[Lesser Evets]

I saw those dreadful little things come about, and I wonder why anyone aside from kids would buy those things. They were horrid.

Good to see they are gone.
Good to know Apple shut that garbage down.

[ytk]

I bought a netbook secondhand, to use for a specific project (I needed a mobile system to use as an automated remote control for my DSLR, and the Mac camera drivers weren't capable of doing the job, but there are open-source drivers that work great on Linux). When I bought it, it had a clean system restore of Windows on it. It was slow. The first thing I did was wipe the drive and install Ubuntu. And, lo and behold… It was still slow. Painfully slow, in fact.

Combined with the horrible keyboard, so-so trackpad, and tiny, low-quality screen, I hate using it. It serves its intended purpose quite well, so I don't regret buying it, but I would never want to use one for any length of time. When I have to actually use it on occasion, I will set it up on my desk next to my MBP and connect over VNC. It's very nearly as responsive that way, and much less unpleasant to operate.

So, yeah, netbooks suck. As cool as they seem, and as sexy as the form factor is, it's too bad they're really just total crap. But at least they're cheap crap (or rather, they were). I am a bit bummed that they're not being made anymore, as I can conceive of quite a few uses for them as a cheap customizable semi-embedded system, but all in all that's not much of a market, and there are other solutions available now that fill that role anyway (Raspberry Pi, Arduino, etc.)

[rjohnstone]

Originally Posted by kevinfulton.ca

The problem is that Apple started that category with the Macbook Air. Then everybody followed. As a result, many consumers (not all of them of course) compare these Ultrabooks to the MBA (which many consider the benchmark). Real Ultrabooks with SSD's are not that much less then an MBA so many people would spend the few bucks extra to get the "benchmark". It's the same thing that happened with the iPad. There's tons of other options on the market, but what do they all get compared to? The iPad.

Intel created the category, not Apple.
Apple was the first to release a product in the category.

[rmwebs]

Hardly surprising. Most manufacturers stopped making them a year ago. The remains few were likely only clearing stock.

The Intel Atom didnt exactly help things. It was supposed to be a low power, cool processor designed for netbooks. It turned out to be a mind numbingly slow, very hot pile of crud.

Intel have no place in the low-power market anymore, despite their efforts with an Intel mobile chip.

----------

Originally Posted by kevinfulton.ca

The problem is that Apple started that category with the Macbook Air. Then everybody followed.

No. Just. No. Not even close.

[kevinfulton.ca]

Originally Posted by rjohnstone

Intel created the category, not Apple.
Apple was the first to release a product in the category.

Fair enough. Intel creates the category that Apple was leading before said category was even created. How's that?

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by rjohnstone

Intel created the category, not Apple.
Apple was the first to release a product in the category.

Sony was first to release a product in the category. The Vaio X505 is the MacBook Air's grand daddy.

[Renzatic]

Originally Posted by waa1futs

The Asus VivoTab RT has these exact qualities...
3) Only $300 total for tablet AND dock

Might need to look again, but I think the VivoTab starts out at $599 with the dock.

[kevinfulton.ca]

Originally Posted by rmwebs

Hardly surprising. Most manufacturers stopped making them a year ago. The remains few were likely only clearing stock.

The Intel Atom didnt exactly help things. It was supposed to be a low power, cool processor designed for netbooks. It turned out to be a mind numbingly slow, very hot pile of crud.

Intel have no place in the low-power market anymore, despite their efforts with an Intel mobile chip.

----------



No. Just. No. Not even close.

Yes, I am aware that Intel came up with the name and specs AFTER the MBA was introduced. That being said it has now been lumped into that category. Sorry for not being more specific.

[Mythulro]

Wow, the iPad actually killed the netbook industry.

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by rmwebs

Hardly surprising. Most manufacturers stopped making them a year ago. The remains few were likely only clearing stock.

The Intel Atom didnt exactly help things. It was supposed to be a low power, cool processor designed for netbooks. It turned out to be a mind numbingly slow, very hot pile of crud.

Intel have no place in the low-power market anymore, despite their efforts with an Intel mobile chip.

The Atom processors used in Netbooks are more powerful than the iPad's ARM processor for one. For another, Intel made a SoC to compete with the different ARM designs used in mobile phones and tablets, called it Medfield and guess what ? It was quite competitive with ARM SoCs released at the same time (Cortex A9s).

Intel knows the processor game more than a few folk around here think.

[Eadfrith]

Awwwwwww.... my main computer for the past 2 years has been a Netbook.