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

[Digital Skunk]

I NEVER said that either, you're still making it up. Why don't do yourself a big favor so you'll stop digging deep holes and bring up these exact posts where I wrote this nonsense? You can't, because I never wrote it, nor did I modify a post and remove any such words.

...Windows is not outselling OS X. ....

So basically, there's no winning with you, and you won't even believe what you wrote not but ten minutes ago.

Got it, thanks.

 

[HenryDJP]

You didn't mention that is was more popular, just that the world as a whole is buying more systems with OSX than with Windows 7 or 8. Which is wrong.




Brother . . . I am trying to tell you that it WAS (as in not any more now) you this comment was describing.

View attachment 388003



So basically, there's no winning with you, and you won't even believe what you wrote not but ten minutes ago.

Got it, thanks.

Yeahhhhh, that's EXACTLY what I said that "As a whole, the world is buying more systems with OS X than with Windows"...

I would highly recommend that you go back to where it all started and MAYBE my post would make sense to you or are you afraid that it will finally make sense?
Get off your high horse and go pick on someone else. You were wrong the first time when you said that I said OS X was more popular than Windows. You can't even admit it without a sarcastic emoticon. I'll keep fighting back as long as people like you are lying about me. Thanks.

 

[0dev]

Had a bit of throw up in my mouth.....oh you weren't serious. Gotcha.

It's true. iOS if anything has inferior security for sure.

 

[samcraig]

Let people think what they want to think. What difference does it really make to you as long as you know the truth? Setting people straight isn't going to do anything but cause animosity.

I'll keep fighting back as long as people like you are lying about me. Thanks.

Gotcha. I don't blame you for "fighting back" - but you answered your own question didn't you. The truth is important. Whether you're talking about what a company does or doesn't do or a person.

 

[cdmoore74]

Gave up on netbooks in 2011.

Gave up on tablets in 2012.

Happy with my computer and phone. Have no need for in-between devices.

 

[tbjohn]

I pretty much agree with what Steve Jobs said. But, netbook is still useful when it is used for what is made for like surfing, simple office work, watching movies, portable, cheap, etc. The problems happen when people are trying to think it or use it as their main computer or laptop.
I bought Samsung netbook end of 2009 and the reason I bought was simply doing thing just like I mentioned above. I don't use it now as often as a few years ago but when I need/want to use it, it is still doing it's job. But, sadly I am using iPad more than netbook just because of battery life, handier, more convenient, etc. Yes, I can feel that netbooks are disappearing and tablets taking over the space.

 

[Eidorian]

Next Generation Atom information is starting to show up now.

Intel’s Next-Gen Atom “ValleyView” to Double CPU Performance, Triple Graphics Performance.

22nm with major improvements on the platform in general and graphics. AMD is going to drop with a quad core too.

AMD to Officially Roll-Out “Kabini” and “Temash” Low-Power APUs This Quarter.

x86 tablets are going to be a killer at CES. This is before you even start talking about Tegra 4.

 

[Mechanic]

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

Intel did not create the category lol. The macbook air was out long before intel started its ultrabook spec. It was started as a way for intel to get more companies to sell its processors. Instead of just apple.

Macbook Air introduction:
Steve Jobs introduced the first MacBook Air during a speech at his keynote at the 2008 Macworld Conference & Expo on January 15, 2008.


Ultrabook initiative introduction:
In 2011, Intel Capital announced a new fund to support startups working on technologies in line with the company's concept for next generation notebooks. The company set aside a $300 million fund to be spent over the next three to four years in areas related to Ultrabooks. Intel announced the Ultrabook concept at Computex in 2011. The Ultrabook would be a thin (less than 0.8 inches thick) notebook that utilized Intel processors and could also incorporate tablet features such as a touch screen and long battery life.

By this marketing initiative and an associated $300 million fund, Intel hoped to influence the slumping PC market against rising competition from tablet computers such as the iPad, which are typically powered by competing ARM-based processors. The Ultrabook directly competes against Apple’s MacBook Air, which has similar form specifications and is powered by Intel CPUs, but runs Mac OS X (and is capable of running Microsoft Windows like the Ultrabooks).

If anything you could say that the macbook air was a netbook done right. Although that is a very poor comparison. Not anything like the cheap pieces of junk that netbooks were. It was not designed from the intel ultrabook spec which came 2 years after the Macbook Air's introduction. The first Ultrabook spec released was Huron River In October 2011, followed by Chief River spec in June 2012. Shark Bay spec for ultrabooks is expected sometime in 2013 mid year. Ultrabooks were designed to copy apples industry leading design and drum up more business in a sagging windows pc industry, by drumming up more processor sales for intel.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Can you give a model number for this netbook that has a "full keyboard and mouse". Never seen one.

It's called plugging one in a USB port. You can't plug a mouse into an iPad no matter how hard you try nor would it do you any good if you could seeing you can't run the full version of OSX.

 

[axual]

Duh ...

This is what you get when you build something no one needs or wants, and load with software that doesn't make anything easier.

To be honest ... Steve Ballmer should be fired for this nonsense since Microsoft pushed this.

 

[Mechanic]

Apple worked with Intel to develop a low profile Mobile Core 2 Duo (P7500).

Apple MacBook Air introduced in January 2008.

Intel Capital creates fund to drive Ultrabook in 2011

First Ultrabook available in October 2011.

I agree with you that a MacBook Air is not an Ultrabook, but Ultrabooks sure want to be MacBook Airs!

I concur I actually watched Jobs introduce the CEO of intel Paul Ottelini onstage to talk about how apple and intel worked together to reduce the package size of the core 2 duo 60% to get it to fit in the mac book air so that higher performance versions of the core 2 could be used and no one else had ever done anything like that. He said that intel did not believe that it could be done shrinking the form factor of the package of the core 2 small enough for apple. But intel worked with apple to do it. Jobs showed on screen the motherboard for that macbook air and showed that it was not much bigger than a pencil.

The cool thing is that the rest of the pc industry benefitted from apples collaboration with intel to reduce the package size of the core 2 duo so that other manufacturers could use it too, and reduce the laptop and notebook sizes for everyone not just mac users.

 

[Small White Car]

one costs $1000+ and the other $300.

Seriously people in thsi thread are comparing apples to saucers. The MBA is HELLISHLY more expensive than most netbooks. They aren't even in the same category.

Oh, I see. I guess they were just super cheap to make and...

THe netbook market died off because the companies producing them were hardly turning a profit.

Oh...hmmm.

Well now that's funny. That sure looks like they WEREN'T super cheap but were just being sold at an un-sustainable price to try and undercut regular PC laptops which actually weren't that much more expensive.

So what we had were a bunch of tiny, crappy laptops that cost almost the same as regular-sized laptops.

The only difference was that they had a bad business plan attached to them. Great distinction.

 

[apolloa]

I think most of the netbooks were sold to people who just wanted a _cheap_ laptop. Having very little power was a negative side effect, being small with a small screen was also a negative side effect of the low price for those people. Now you can get a big hunk of a laptop for the same or almost the same price, so these people aren't going to buy a netbook anymore. I think it is the loss of these buyers that killed the netbook.

The other customers are minority groups. There are those who wanted a _small_ laptop. With as little compromise as possible, and cheapness not a big requirement. For these people, the netbook was disappointing, and for these people the MBA and Ultrabooks were developed. Both are obviously not as cheap as a netbook, but they are actually useful to the customer and profitable to the manufacturer.

And then there were those who wanted a computerlike thing for light use, and there the tablet (iPad) is killing the remaining netbook sales.

But the biggest killer are very cheap 15" windows laptops. Compared to MBA and iPad, netbook has pros and cons. Compared to a cheap 15" windows laptop, netbooks are failures for most of the potential customers.

So after a long explanation, your basically stating cheap laptops killed Netbooks.
The netbook created the cheap computing market, and it was inevitable technology becoming cheaper would allow full laptops to get cheaper so I guess you could argue that.

But for the people at the time, netbooks I think were a great device with no competition, I never did get one but I always like the little Acer One.
It's interesting to see that Apple made the tablet popular, but others have made it cheap and reachable for the masses and now Apple is having to try and respond to that.

 

[KnightWRX]

To be honest ... Steve Ballmer should be fired for this nonsense since Microsoft pushed this.

Actually, quite the contrary. The original netbooks, starting with the Asus EeePC, were Linux-powered. Microsoft is the ones that actually helped kill the netbooks by making them slower than originally intended. A good read, this article is from 2011 :

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/why-the-linux-netbook-crashed-and-burned/9156

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Funny thing is I was never interested in the netbooks for the reason Steve mentioned, and yet... here I sit with an MBA in my hands and a iPad sitting on my desk. The MBA replaced the MBP that just seemed like a ton of bricks (yes, at only 6 pounds I'm being melodramatic), and I use it when I need more than the iPad will do, yet my Mini isn't available (traveling).

Can't put my finger on it, but I have friends with NetBooks and they've always seemed "forced." I never really thought about it enough to articulate, but now that I read Steve's comments I'd have to say it is what I was "perceiving." One might say it's the power of suggesting it, but I do truly feel the iPad and MBA do EVERYTHING exactly the way I want. And, once M$ comes out with the Office for iPad, my kids won't need expensive laptops/netbooks/whatever to do school work (until they get older and maybe want to do software engineering or something )

I do most of my work on iWork for iPad, and it does more than enough of what I need. MS Office has macros, but I would rather use something like Bento or FileMaker Pro than a MS Office with macros and possibly a virus too.

Even on my MAC, I have both iWork and MS Office. I use Excel only for a special spreadsheet with macros that I must use for accounting purposes, which I'm planning to replace soon with an alternative that would run on both my MAC and iPad (Possibly FileMaker). For everything else I use Numbers and Pages.
When sharing documents, I send PDF files, not the original Pages or Numbers file.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Let people think what they want to think. What difference does it really make to you as long as you know the truth? Setting people straight isn't going to do anything but cause animosity.

I don't have a problem with people posting factual information, but it always seemed to me that certain people on here seemed to rather enjoy "correcting" other people's posts. They don't seem to enjoy having their own posts corrected, however, as you might well imagine.

Sure, but when they start posting it and I can correct it, I will. That way, you know, people who don't know better can actually learn and move forward rather than remain in ignorance because no one ever dares to tell them they could be wrong.

If you don't like it, there's an ignore feature on the forum, or you can simply skip my posts. If of course, remaining in the dark about the actual reality of life is what you're after.

Oh my! What an absolute hoot given KnightWRX put me on his ignore list when I corrected some of his own posts.

 

[KnightWRX]

Oh my! What an absolute hoot given KnightWRX put me on his ignore list when I corrected some of his own posts.

That is not the reason I put you on ignore btw. The reason was that you post long interminable rants and go off on a dozen tangeants. It makes discussing anything with you completely impossible. Not to mention you often give facts without providing citation (which I think I repeatedly asked you for once and you just kept ranting and ranting instead of providing them).

Back to ignore with you though.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Actually, quite the contrary. The original netbooks, starting with the Asus EeePC, were Linux-powered. Microsoft is the ones that actually helped kill the netbooks by making them slower than originally intended. A good read, this article is from 2011 :

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/why-the-linux-netbook-crashed-and-burned/9156

LOL, you are 100% correct! It was a murder-suicide case. Linux would run nicely tho.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Remember when Sony had that 7" VAIO that could fit in your pockets? Oh god! They're still kicking around, but man do they have the worst reviews.

And history is going to repeat itself with these 6" Android phones that are coming out. Everyone's going to run out and buy them, and then most will just hate them. It's going to be great for watching video, it's going to be awesome for gaming, and reading, but they're going to be the worst phones for texting and actually making phone calls on.

 

[apolloa]

Remember when Sony had that 7" VAIO that could fit in your pockets? Oh god! They're still kicking around, but man do they have the worst reviews.

And history is going to repeat itself with these 6" Android phones that are coming out. Everyone's going to run out and buy them, and then most will just hate them. It's going to be great for watching video, it's going to be awesome for gaming, and reading, but they're going to be the worst phones for texting and actually making phone calls on.

You mean like the Galaxy Note and Note 2 which both have received rave reviews across the board and are selling very well?
You are completely wrong I'm afraid, I don't like the big screen phones but millions and millions do, many on here even love and talk about their Note phones wondering why Apple will never make a device like it.

 

[G51989]

The term "Ultra Book" is made up by Intel to classify their thinner MacBook Air clones. When Steve Jobs pulled the original MacBook Air from the manila folder at MacWorld in 2008, there was no such thing as an Ultra Book. Notice the Ultra Book came SEVERAL years later! As another commenter said, the MBA should automatically be classified then? I don't think it's an Ultra Book, I think it's just plain and simple, a MacBook Air.

Ultrabook is indeed just a marketing term.

The Macbook Air was not the first super thin and light laptop to exist, the 1st generation was actually pretty awful. It could cook your groin like crazy.

There were laptops that could fit in a manila folder well before the Air.

 

[Jessica Lares]

You mean like the Galaxy Note and Note 2 which both have received rave reviews across the board and are selling very well?
You are completely wrong I'm afraid, I don't like the big screen phones but millions and millions do, many on here even love and talk about their Note phones wondering why Apple will never make a device like it.

No, I'm talking about the 6" ones that are supposed to come out this year. The Note II is fine at the size it is now, but it shouldn't get any bigger than that. Not for a cellphone anyway.

 

[G51989]

I'm sorry but Chromebook is not even an option for any NORMAL RATIONAL consumer. Who wants to pay about $300 for a so-called laptop that only works when there's wifi? Better buy an Android tablet.

How? For someone who just uses their computer at home, wifi all the time, or takes it with them to a restaurant or what not, Wifi is almost always there. Chromebooks are awesome for basic users, and has a full keyboard, and is cheap. For basic users? It can be a great purchase for about 300 dollars.

And the Macbook air was around BEFORE Intel pushed out their ultra book, and all of a sudden Macbook air has to be categorized as one of them?

What Intel laptop are your talking about? I have yet to see Intel produce their own laptop. Where is this Intel Made laptop?

And the Macbook Air was not the first thin and light laptop, its a great machine. But it wasn't the first. Its one of 2 Apple computers I can recommend currently, the Mini and the MBA.

And to justify your love for netbooks with your so-called inner nerd is kinda funny. So as a nerd you should like a limited weak laggy PC laptop that's thick and chunky? Cool.

I have a couple netbooks, the newest one has a Celeron processor, 4GB of ram, Intel HD graphics, 320gb HDD, and plenty of IO ports and good battery life, Runs Windows 7, its not " laggy ", nor stripped down. If that Netbook is stripped down, whats an ipad? It has far more hardware power than an iPad. Hell, my Netbook can run the Half Life Orange Box at good settings, I'd love to see an iPad ( melt ) try to do that.

My two older Netbooks include a 1st generation Atom, and a newer dual core Atom, they both run Linux, and they are very very fast. With good battery life.

And as far as Inner Nerd, if I were to buy a Tablet ( I got a cheap Surface RT to test the waters, its OK at best, might get a Pro ), my netbooks can run any OS I want, they can run any software I want, and I can modify them in any way I want to, they are computing freedom, if I were to replace them with an ipad, I'm stuck with Apples crap, and thats it. Thats why I won't buy a Nexus or a an iPad, or any limited computing device.

Thick and Chunky? You need to hit the gym.

----------

And by neutral people you mean people who always end their statements with
a) Samsung/ Google is better than Apple
b) Android is better than iOS
c) Apple is an evil corporation

Neutrality defined.

A: Depends on your needs, Apple makes some great products, but not everyone likes them. I personally avoid the iToys and stick with macs.
B: Right now, I'd say thats true. I think Apple knows it, as they fired the iOS lead and put Ive in charge.
C: Yes, Apple is an Evil corporation, as is Google, Microsoft, and most large faceless companies. They don't give a **** about anything other than your money.

 

[Eidorian]

Actually, quite the contrary. The original netbooks, starting with the Asus EeePC, were Linux-powered. Microsoft is the ones that actually helped kill the netbooks by making them slower than originally intended. A good read, this article is from 2011 :

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/why-the-linux-netbook-crashed-and-burned/9156

Slap on top of that Intel's own asinine hardware limitations (RAM, display resolution) they placed on the platform when you wanted to purchase Atom processors. Crippled RAM capacities and if you wanted to use ION you had to pay more vs. pairing with 945GM. Core 2 CULV was another hit with Core 2 performance at just over ~1 GHz for dirt cheap. It makes you wonder why they even released Atom at all 5 years ago. I can see where they have reached today but it is like the hated the line the entire time along the way.

I'm sorry but Chromebook is not even an option for any NORMAL RATIONAL consumer. Who wants to pay about $300 for a so-called laptop that only works when there's wifi? Better buy an Android tablet.

And to justify your love for netbooks with your so-called inner nerd is kinda funny. So as a nerd you should like a limited weak laggy PC laptop that's thick and chunky? Cool.

And the Macbook air was around BEFORE Intel pushed out their ultra book, and all of a sudden Macbook air has to be categorized as one of them?

A Chromebook is now hitting $249 running ARM and I believe you might be able to pick one up for $199 soon if not now. Samsung also had a mobile Celeron dual core floating around for some time. A Sandy Bridge based Celeron is nothing to look down at.

 

[G51989]

Slap on top of that Intel's own asinine hardware limitations (RAM, display resolution) they placed on the platform when you wanted to purchase Atom processors..

Uh, these were sub 300 dollar machines ( a good one was little more ). Limitations are the name of the game at razor think profit margins.

And under Linux, they actually did very well.

Crippled RAM capacities and if you wanted to use ION you had to pay more vs. pairing with 945GM.

With the 1st netbooks under Linux, 1GB or 512mb, was more than enough.

Core 2 CULV was another hit with Core 2 performance at just over ~1 GHz for dirt cheap. It makes you wonder why they even released Atom at all 5 years ago.

Because the Atom is super cheap to produce, and actually performs pretty well for what it is.

I can see where they have reached today but it is like the hated the line the entire time along the way.

Think about it, the MacBook Air was garbage when it came out. But it matured and became good, same thing with the Atom.