Fast Food Apple Pies and Why Netbooks Suck

Food for thought: That smartphone costs you at the very least $199 plus a 3 year data+call plan contract ($30 just for the data plan every month). It’s good for small apps, but will not be useful if you actually need to type anything longer than a tweet (hello finger cramps!). That laptop will run you, bare minimum, $1149. It’ll come with 2 gigs of ram, a 120gb hard drive, and on board graphics with a small 13 inch screen. You won’t be playing much more than WoW on it, the hard drive is tiny, and for the price you get ripped with the small amount of ram (by today’s standards).

A decent netbook (not Asus, thinkin’ more Acer and HP) will come with a gig of ram, a 160gb hard drive (or a smaller solid state one, for the same price), on-board graphics, a screen res of 1024×600 (not HD, but not far off from the 14 inch laptops of 2-3 years ago either), have 3 usb ports plus card readers, and will only set you back between $299 and $349, depending on the brand. If you buy into the Apple line of products, you have a lot of money to spend on computer hardware (when a comparable PC costs about half the price). I totally get that there is definite value in buying the whole hardware suite: your iPod works best when it’s synced up with your mac book and Apple TV over AirPort. I’ve seen this in action, and, when it works, it’s really effin’ slick.

But, if you just need to use Firefox (which does any email account, will run Open Office, a huge host of online photo/video editing and storage applications, less processor hungry games like Peggle/Bejeweled and the like, and I’d bet Quake Live and Battlefield Heroes), then spending $1150 on a Macbook plus another $400-$700 a year on iPhone contract costs (before the cost of the phone itself) is absolutely ridiculous. I’ve yet to meet someone who has actually thought they’d carry an Acer Aspire in their pocket, but I know several who swear by how small they are (they’ll fit in their purses) and easy to carry (they weigh almost nothing). Everything, including smartphones, netbooks, 13 inch pc laptops and 17 inch macbook pros, and avid video editing work stations, they all have their place. For $299 you’ll have a hard time doing better, especially if you don’t need to check your twitter feed constantly while having dinner with friends.

I hate it when people do that.

Smartphone = Cheapish + Monthly Fees = Expensiveish

Netbook = Cheapish. Great for couch surfing / writing / email / youtube / skype / IM.

Laptop = Expensiveish

I agree with the “somewhere in between” form factor, but I’m not that radical with the “lame” statement. Smartphones are powerful machines, and will be even more powerful, but their form factor makes it difficult to perform longer tasks. I already have a laptop but it’s not that piece of hardware to have on the go (either short or longer trips).

I’m reading a lot of defense for the netbook, and it makes sense — for now.

But, from what I see, the main thinking behind Joey’s post is the future. By then Smartphones will be be more versatile, and laptops more portable — the two things that are presently compensated by the netbook.

If it’s not the “zone of suck” it fills a gap that’s progressively closing.

Let’s consider another aspect of both (pie and portable computing device) products. If you are talking a 12-25 demographic, I think the article is right on the money. “TC” is correct, netbooks are “cheap laptiops:. If you are buying for the fourth grade class, netbooks (cheap, durable with SSD as in Asus Eee), you are looking at a different niche. If you are looking for an appliance to throw in the purse or attache, and cost is a consideration, the netbook is an appealing alternative to the Palm TX or HP pocket computer for coffeeshop wifi and open office applications.
Where the marketing people may be correct is the area “Who is willing to spend money”? Raise you hand if you have 1 $1000+ Apple laptop AND a PDA phone that has been upgraded within the last 12 months, and a “plan” that runs close to or more than $100. There’s no point in marketing the frugal, the indigent, or the careful comparison buyer. That is not where the money is.

While I agree with the facts that Joey argues upon, I wont buy his arguements.

Comparing Netbooks with Dodo, well. How can you say its the netbooks that die and the laptops that evolve? I can say that the laptop will die and the netbook will evolve, which basically implies the same thing!

Actually the fault lies in the way netbooks have been marketed and the way they have been named. Damn, a netbook is as good as a laptop!

If you look closely, then the 12/13 inch laptops are weaker than the 15/17 inch ones and the desktops are in a whole different league of power.

There’s a continuum everywhere in nature. People are tall, short, black, white, rich, poor and everything in between. And when you take all the parameters, it results into a large permutation. Whats there to debate?

Hell, I even expect Network Computers/Thin Clients to make a comeback, a lot sooner than people expect them to. Look at all those Online Apps, Data Storage facilities that have cropped up among the whole Web 2.0 goodness. Whose to say that they wont be more popular as time passes by and Internet gets faster?

As for now, netbooks(damn, I hate the name) are a lucrative segment, and I doubt they wouldnt exist is some form or the other, 10 years from now. And Smartphones are gonna evolve too. Its just that we will be having a larger choice in future.

As Bikalpa Paudel has already said in the comments, a netbook *is* a laptop, not a different type of device; it just happens to be smaller and cheaper than the average laptop. Some people want a laptop that’s small and light (netbook lovers tend to be these), and some people want a laptop that’s cheap (more on them below).

Most people who make their living from technology can justify buying an expensive computer, and the computer industry is (as usual) too myopic to understand that the majority of the general population is in a different situation. It took a Taiwanese company to do what the American companies thought was a stupid idea, and the result was immense popularity, yet the North American computer industry still insists on trying to pretend netbooks out of existence. Most people will be perfectly happy with what a geek would call a lame machine, and for them anything more is just wasted money. And as Microsoft limits sales of the relatively cheap Windows 7 Starter Edition to what it thinks are lame machines, it will find to its surprise that most people are perfectly content with them and won’t pay more.

I have a smartphone, but I am keenly aware of its limitations: fat fingers make it a trial to use for email, and 46-year-old eyes make the web browser’s tiny text almost indecipherable. (And face it, >90% of web pages are designed for 1024×768 or better these days.)

I want a physical keyboard with keys wider than my fingers, and a screen bigger than a the cover of a mass-market paperback; but I also want a device as light and luggable as a clipboard. And I don’t have a spare two thousand dollars to give to Apple for their gold-plated solution, the Air. So why is a netbook a bad choice?

Yes, we agree that netbooks and notebooks, currently marketed as separate categories, will eventually blur together. But which way will they blur? Will notebooks shrink (and will Microsoft be willing to shrink the price of Windows accordingly)? Or will netbooks, with one foot still in the cellular world, grow up?

Or to put it another way: which operating system will the unified note/netbooks of the future use: Windows, or Android?

Judging from the phenomenal and ongoing sales of netbooks, I’d say most folks think they DON’T suck. Smartphones versus laptops versus netbooks is like comparing kiwis versus watermelons versus oranges.

Smartphone developers have already proven the most popular apps for those devices tend to be fart machines and the like. Talk about your “zone of suck.” As a developer I’d rather keep developing web-based apps that work on ANY of these devices.

Nice theory. Totally wrong.

Netbooks kick ass for getting real work done on the go. Phones are ridiculous w.r.t. text entry.

What is the laptop in that pic, a Titanium G4 PowerBook?

Hm. I’ll actually offer a defense of Joey’s theory by asking all the netbook-philes above: how many of you are, right now, using your netbooks as your primary computer? I’m guessing about zero hands are going up. How many of you actually have a laptop or desktop computer and a smartphone already? Probably just about all of you.

And that’s kind of what the point was, I think.

To put it another way, the niche that netbooks are filling isn’t “cheap computer for cheap times.” They aren’t the Original Beetle of the computing world. The niche is, when push comes to shove, “cool toy for people who have enough money to have multiple computers.”

I’d actually like a netbook myself. I’d like to run Ubuntu on it. I think it’d be a great traveling machine. But I already have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro (and a PowerMac G5 and an Apple TV), and I’m the kind of nerd who can deal with running Ubuntu. I am the target market for netbooks — but I am not most consumers.

If smartphones get smarter and “full power” laptops get cheaper and lighter, how much lifespan will the netbook category as we know it today really have? The commenter above who referred to Microsoft and Apple not being able to make money at it was witty, but if you read the business press recently, you’ll learn that Asus and Dell aren’t able to make money at it, either: the margin is so low that they frequently lose money on each sale. They’d much rather get you to spend $700 on a 12″ notebook than $300 on a 10″ one.

And if the notebook is going to actually be your primary machine, the chances are you’re gonna pony up the extra cash, aren’t you?

I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with this. And let me tell you why:

I went traveling to Japan. Have you tried to roam there or catch 802.xx wireless? For the cellular network it’s fscking expensive. And open 802.xx wireless is NON-EXISTENT.

However, cat5x grows like trees in the biz hotels. Do *that* with your smarty*ss phone.

Also: When was the last time you lugged a full lappie in a nomad’s backpack? And put it under the tender mercies of the US TSA? The TSA can bite me, it’s QUITE EASY to mirror a 32 gig SSD before going off on a trip. Plus I have all my encrypted data accessible and don’t have to use public terms. So there.

You may call it the ‘zone of suck’ but for [sometimes transoceanic] road warriors like me something like a Dell Mini9 with either Linux or OSX is a ‘zone of godsend’.

Also, you don’t sync your assets via DropBox or MobileMe, do you? Try THAT with your namby-pamby smart*ss phone not iPhone…. it. won’t. happen.

Even better: Why do a need a Kindle when a netbook is small enough to cock on its side? I can read comics, PDFs, or texts in this way. Oh, and I can put a whole drama season on the SDHC card in the bay and watch via VLC or MPLAYER. Again, your smartphone won’t do that.

The netbook. The ULTIMATE entertainment / traveler’s tool.

Thank you for mentioning the fax machine. Though I certainly enjoyed the apple pie analogy, for me the fax machine is the ultimate symbol of, as you put it so well, a transitional technology.

There is no good reason anymore to use a fax machine. No good reason to think about network computers. No reason to eat a fast food apple pie and no reason I’ve yet seen to invest any money at all in a netbook.

With the upcoming release of the Asus 1008HA, we can no longer say a netbook is defined by it’s small size.

You’ll get a lot of arguments if you try to say a netbook is larger than 10″. No matter what Asus calls it.

Two criticisms: first about your writing. second about your argument. If you’ve ever worked as a writer, for a magazine, for instance, you’d know the term “burying your lead”. You need an editor. Your set up is long, slow and boring. It’s so full of self importance it was a chore to get through to the meat of your story.

2. Functionality is pretty much the idea behind the netbook. It’s not all marketing. I just returned from a trip abroad and bought a netbook for that trip. It was the first time I’d been away from my Mac in years. No exaggeration. But I was so pleasantly surprised with the functionality and efficiency of the form factor and the workings of the netbook (albeit Windows) that I have to disagree with you. The netbooks are a success. It’s too bad we have all this baggage that we can’t recognize simple utility for what it is.

Anyone who believes that the point of this article was “netbooks are useless,” go back and read it again. But this time, leave your defensive reflex at the door.

The point of the article is that the niche currently occupied by netbooks is being encroached upon from both directions and will eventually shrink to nothing (or close enough to nothing so as to be unprofitable). Right now, that space still exists, but in the near future there will be no more need for it.

To put it another way, the article wasn’t advising readers to buy smartphones instead of netbooks. It was advising them to not invest all of their resources into the production and sales of netbooks.

Many people will buy Netbooks for their first computer.

There will be people who can’t afford bigger computers. There are millions and millions of people who use the Internet first on their phones and will eventually graduate to a Netbook. Maybe even billions of people will do this.

Then there are kids who want their parents to get them a computer, and their parents who don’t want to spend for a big computer.

The other good thing about Netbooks is that they drive the price and weight of 13 inch computers down.

It is already happening. The latest generation of Netbooks are coming with bigger screens, more powerful graphics, faster processors, and more storage. The price is also raising into notebook range. The change is pushed by consumer demand, in essence Netbooks are morphing into what people really want… a laptop.

There is a subset of consumers that really want an 8″ screen (would love one strapped to my leg when flying for example), but believe history will prove this is a niche market. A nice niche market? Absolutely.

Sunfly (Full disclosure -MBA)

My theory as to why is different than yours, but my conclusion was the same.

To me, a laptop is something I pull out of a large bag, unfold, set on a table and boot up. Thus, to me, a “netbook” is not a different product category; it’s a small, cheap laptop: I pull it out of a (smaller) large bag, unfold it, set it on a table and turn it on. It’s why I hate the “netbook” term: the term “netbook” is an attempt to convince us that the low-end of the laptop spectrum is really a new product category rather than a cheaper older product category. Given there is only a couple of inches difference between an MSI Wind and an Apple MacBook Air, why is one a laptop and the other a netbook, other than price?

To me, a hand-held computer (like a mobile handset or a hand-held calculator) is something I pull out of my pocket, turn it on (in less than a second), and can hold it with one hand while I use it with another.

What differentiates the two products is how we interact with them: one fit in a pocket while the other in a bag, one turns on instantly while the other has to boot, one can be used one handed while the other needs to be put on a table. There is no “range” of product with a zone of suck because the way we interact with these two different devices are radically different. And it is that difference in interaction that differentiates the products into separate categories.

If there is a new product category here, it had better be something that does something useful that we interact with in a way that is different than hand-held computers and briefcase-sized (or purse-sized) laptops. It’s possible that the Kindle or a tablet computer may be such a form factor: it can be used one-handed but the larger size means we can interact with it more like a clipboard or a large book rather than a small calculator. I dunno. But a “netbook” is just a cheap, tiny laptop.

geez-a-loo looks like you wrote this article to the wrong crowd! 😉

i envision a day in which one can whip out a fold-up keyboard they’ve stored in their briefcase, attach the smartphone (lengthwise), and use it to type out those long emails and/or code this or that. for the people the keyboard is important for, that will do nicely. netbooks will, i believe, disappear as quickly as they came.

One overlooked development in the netbook vs. smartphone debate: practical voice input. Most of us can speak faster than we type. A sufficiently accurate voice input program that works well for most current “keyboard tasks” is not that far off. That eliminates the biggest advantage of netbooks over smartphones.

In a very few years, there will also be high quality projection technology to allow smartphones to produce virtual dispays that are bigger than those of today’s laptops, or maybe there will be wireless heads-up displays built into glasses or contact lenses. in any case, I’m confident both the keyboard and the display disadvantages of smartphones are temporary. So in a couple of years, why carry a 1kg netbook instead of a 200g (or maybe 20g on your wrist a la Dick Tracy) smartphone?

Netbooks have no future. This is the god honest truth.

I don’t agree laptops will evolve to fill the netbook niche. That makes no sense because that’s exactly what a netbook is, a laptop that evolved to fill that niche.

What will evolve to fill the netbook niche is the smartphone. Smartphone are going to be the shit. They will find ways to make it possible to expand or unfold the screen, input is similarly going to become a non-issue.

I predict the following from Apple and possibly other companies within 5 years:

They will release an iphone that contains your entire home folder. The iphone will also be able to dock _inside_ your choice of macbook, ranging from 12″ to 17″ which contains a better cpu, more memory, an optical drive, supporting storage with fullblown apps, and USB, FW, sound in/out etc, ports. When docked, you can send and receive calls from your macbook using a headset, paused itunes and all. SMS messages will appear on your screen. When you eject your phone and close the lid of your macbook, all your files and work are stored on your phone where you can view/listen to any of them and edit most of them using light versions of the Mac apps, much like quicklook. Of course you don’t want to do hardcore editing in this case, but it’s good enough to get by until you have time and a flat surface to pop open your macbook.

When you get back home from traveling, you can store your laptop in your briefcase away from sight until it’s time to go to work the next day. You will take your iPhone to an iMac that it slides into, just like it did in the Macbook. Now you have a pro desktop setting with all of the same files, full expansion capabilities, peripherals, what have you. It will be networked with a home media server with archives and large files you don’t need to carry around all the time. It will also be able to serve those files to you over the internet should you suddenly need one from your iphone remotely one day. Your settings, passwords, and files never change, never have to be synced between various devices, and you are never without them.

When you step out to a bar later that evening, you leave behind the laptop and the (of course) desktop. But you take your iphone, and it’s just as if you had your entire “computer life” with you in case there’s anything you need, any detail you forgot, any presentation you want to share, anything.

Now, where does a ‘netbook’ fit into this picture?

I use a notebook at home but when travelling I take my iPod touch. Smaller, in the pocket and email is good when at the internet café. Once I purchased the touch the laptop stayed at home.

I am torn between two devices for a future upgrade path, I have been waiting for a new iPhone but would really like an iPod touch with a 6″ display. The keyboard etc will be much bigger.

All I can say is that the people above who are criticising smartphones and their keyboards and/or browsers are very obviously using the wrong smartphone! If you can’t type a lengthy reply on your phone or can’t browse the web easily then there is either something wrong with you or there is something wrong with the phone you are using.

Also, for those doing “real work” on their netbook – face it, what you really want is something as light as a netbook but as powerful as a laptop. The way things are heading (e.g. once optical drives become obsolete and SSD become predominant), this is what you’ll get. However, that doesn’t change the fact that what you have right now is just a crap laptop. It might be “good enough” but it is still just a really crap laptop. The proof of that pudding would be to answer this question “if my netbook could do everything that a laptop could do but was the same weight and similar dimensions as my netbook, which would I prefer to have?” Actually, this is already answered – just look how Netbooks are becoming more and more like small laptops (i.e. their size has increased) rarther than staying Netbook sized. The market is already phasing the Netbook out and you folks just aren’t noticing it.

By the way, that lengthy reply was brought to you by my smartphone. In a matter of minutes. Just like a Netbook.

At the end of the article deVilla addresses developers.
The truth is no one develops for a netbook. You can develop computer applications (be it on a desktop, laptop, or netbook), you can develop mobile applications, and you can develop web applications.

The thing is netbooks don’t run many computer apps well and so there is a chance your user will have a bad experience. While there seems to be a market for netbooks as cheap and light laptops, there is no market for netbook applications as there isn’t a separate experience other than size and being limited. In any scenario a user is using a netbook, it could hypothetically be replaced with a laptop that does the same thing better.

Web applications can actually be broken down into mobile web apps and computer web apps. If it being on the web makes it a good experience for all platforms than facebook would not have designed a separate interface for mobiles and youtube would not have made the iphone app.

Smart phones offer a separate experience from the computer and have unique attributes not shared by desktop, laptop, or even netbook. They are almost always with a user, on, location aware, have connection to the internet through data plans, and can be used with one hand while standing. Hence, deserving recognition as a platform

Netbooks should not be discussed as a development platform as they are still laptops ( just crappy ones.) There is really no comparison, but if you still want to develop for the netbook, I’m sure the market is screaming for more text editors : ]

45 million netbook users by the end of 2009 (including the 08 sales) are telling a different story.
No need to argue about it, the market says it all.
Funny how people are trying to fight the trend of affordable mobile computers with a great formfactor. Let me guess… you have an iPhone and a MacBook… talking about stereotypes 😉

The word “netbook” is meaningless. I was hoping that you would define what it means to you, since you bandy it about as though it had inherent meaning. From context, I guess it means “portable computer that is smaller than a typical laptop/notebook computer”. But all of these devices under examination connect to the internet, and none have to do with fishing, so “netbook” in and of itself makes little sense. Someone reading this article ten years in the past or ten years in the future will be fascinated and somewhat perplexed.

Yes, this is a pet peeve of mine (along with much of the other faddish technology jargon-du-jour).

That said, I agree with your general thesis, and particularly enjoyed your company name placeholders.

-b

Using Joeys own flawed argument I could claim that there is no market for a laptop computer – you’ve got a desktop with a full sized keyboard and big screen when you’re at home, or a smartphone for when you go out. Laptops are a ‘dangerous red herring’.

The thing about netbooks is that they are laptops but they are actually portable! You can put a netbook in your bag and take it on holiday, to the shops, to a cafe without noticing the weight.

If anything smartphones are the red herring – locked down, tiny screen, crap keyboard. Nobody would dream of replacing their main computer with a phone.

If anything I’d say netbooks are going to replace laptops for the simple reason there is nothing a netbook cant do that a laptop can – they are just smaller and they are the inevitable future of computing.

I think netbooks are in the “zone of good enough”. Not as capable as a full-fledged laptop when you’re sitting down, but still pretty usable. Not as portable as a smartphone when you’re on the go, but still very bearable. “Good enough” devices may not look like much, but they can be fierce competitors in the wild. I wouldn’t write them off just yet. Back in the 1970s, the minicomputers laughed their asses off when they heard of the first personal computer. “He’s just like us, only lamer ROTFL!!!11” 🙂

You say it yourself towards the end of your post: “I suspect that what we consider to be a netbook today will be just another category of laptop computer tomorrow.” That’s all a netbook is, a thin and light laptop. Everyone who extols their virtues uses them as they would use a laptop.

Your argument makes a lot more sense when applied to those 7″ UMPCs and MIDs. (Yes, I suppose the original Eee falls into this category, but I’m mainly thinking the various slate or slider type device actually marketed as UMPCs or MIDs.) They’re a little too big to fit in your pocket, too small too offer a good laptop experience, but the software isn’t there too offer a good experience of its own.

What I wonder about though are the smaller UMPC/MIDs, the ones with the 4.8″ screen or smaller. (e.g. Viliv S5, or XpPhone.) The XpPhone really is a cellphone and Viliv has announced an S5 with a 3G radio. They’re both large by cellphone standards, but they both fit inside a pant pocket. If the software is there to offer a compelling experience, we may see the growth of the “large cellphone” as well as the “small laptop.”

I don’t think they will meet in the middle though, for precisely the reason you articulate. In the middle, it’s too large to be truly mobile, but too small to do laptop like things convincingly. (Everyone with 10″ netbooks who disagree with me, your netbook is really a cheap laptop.)

As I don’t have a big “proper” laptop, my netbook fills the niche between the iphone and the big desktop-based tower i have at home. Light emailing, dumping photos from my camera, running presentations, writing/editing documents on the train/plane (where the small form factor allows for more comfortable fit on those horrid tray things). And yes, if I did have a laptop, I’d get less use out of the netbook…but as TC notes above, it’s the price point that makes it more of a disposable commodity device that has its uses.

I think you may be right in practice, even if you might be wrong (as several of these other fine folks have suggested) in principle.

As they have noted, there is a space between laptop and smartphone where netbooks can comfortably sit.

However, I think that’s going to change when we can roll/fold/pull out a fabric keyboard and display from the smartphone and have it suddenly be as big for reading and typing as the netbook.

~ TGC

Wow such a long winded report on netbooks and amusingly compared with deep fried pies.

I can confirm that as a student the netbooks are perfect.
No one wants to type lecture notes on a smartphone.
Full size laptops are heavy to take around and take too much space.

Netbooks are light, affordable and cover all the main bases when it comes to student computing.

Well you mentioned that smartphones are computing enough, well it might not be enough for other people. Viewing websites on an iPhone is quite tiring and involves a lot of scrolling around. Granted netbooks don’t have large full size screens but its still much more enjoyable than browsing the web on any smartphone.

In conclusion, contrary to your opinion I believe netbooks are here to stay. With increasing amounts of computer power on the web and increasing internet speeds, I believe unlike the UC, the netbooks will continue to grow.

On the other hand, pretty much the same logic can be applied to laptops. I have never owned a ‘full-size’ laptop because they are pretty much overpriced, underpowered, back-breaking pieces of luggage that’s easily lost. Since I don’t travel that much and can usually wait to send an email there is no point in getting a laptop.

But with my netbook I just don’t think about it. I just drop it in my back pack and go. Sure, it’s underpowered, but perfectly able to do what I need on the move and for the rest of the time I have a desktop that’s at least twice as powerful as any laptop and probably one-third as expensive. And because a netbook is far from overpriced, losing or damaging it is no big financial hit. For me ‘full-size’ laptops are right in the ‘Zone of Suck’

My first netbook is now a test web server at home that I can leave on all the time and access remotely from my second one.

I have always liked the old design engineering maxim that says, “Form follows Function.” That’s why a 2009 Honda Accord doesn’t look like a gas guzzling 1955 Cadillac with big tailfins.

I have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro 17″. My wife has an iMac with a 24″ display that’s upstairs in her office. Each of these devices is better for certain functions.

The iPhone is better for phone calls and mobility because of small size (fits in my shirt pocket) and 3G connectivity. I can use it anywhere. It works great for checking realtime traffic conditions while driving and for GPS mapping apps. It’s also best for streaming music to my car radio.

My MacBook Pro is better for web surfing, typing a long document, accessing my database at the office, and watching HD Movies in the full screen 1920 X 1200 view. However, it isn’t very good for checking something on the web while having lunch at a restaurant. The iPhone is better for that.

My wife’s iMac has a big external disk running 24 hours a day that handles TimeShare backups for both our Macs. It also has a couple printers attached that we can both print to with WiFi. Neither my iPhone or my MacBook Pro can host those services very conveniently.

Thinking ahead in terms of form follows function, I can see a place in our house for one more device. I’d call it a ‘coffee table’ computer that is neither ‘my wife’s’ computer or ‘my computer.’ It would be a battery operated wireless toss around device that you could just pick up whenever you wanted to look up something on the web, check email, chat, play games, or perhaps make a Skype call. It might also stream music to our stereo system. Something evolved from today’s netbooks could be one possibility. A tablet computer might be even better for these functions (think of an iPod Touch with a 10 inch screen).

One thing for sure is that I don’t want to pay AT&T for two separate data plans on different devices. But I think it might be nice is that coffee table computer could operate on 3G. The obvious solution here would be for my iPhone to have the capability to tether both my MacBook Pro and the coffee table computer. That way I could use the data plan that I’m already paying AT&T for with any of these three devices. That would make my ‘coffee table computer’ a great travel accessory.

Bottom line is that I see more convergence to come between the mobile phone and the mobile computer. The device manufacturers (like Apple) and the software providers will be able to open up huge market potentials if they can somehow manage to reign in the greedy self-serving cellular network service providers like AT&T and Verizon who seek to put a toll booth at every Internet node and on every device.

I don’t think I’ve ever read anything so stupid. Of course, that wasn’t until I actually went to your blog.

Netbooks are perfect for people that need a portable device that they can actually do work on – not a smartphone. People that work on their feet all day, but also need to occasionally sit down and work, love the netbook.

Smartphones will NEVER replace netbooks/laptops. Laptops will NEVER replace smaller devices that do the exact same thing, with almost just as much power and speed.

Anyone that says you can do “real” work on a smartphone should be emabarrassed.

I think the netbook form factor is here to stay, though I can see some category blurring with budget laptops and ultraportables (Dell has a Mini 12 for example). Many commenters praised netbooks’ balance of portability and functionality, in comparison to the small and cramped experience on a smartphone, so unless smartphones develop some kind of game changing technology like Timothy Collett mentioned, lots of people will continue to find them unsuitable.

I guess it’s not fair to accuse the author of Mac fanboy-ism, but I still think if Apple came out with some sort of inexpensive laptop counterpart to the Mac Mini (which would surely not be called a netbook), a good fraction of the netbook hatred would suddenly disappear.

The problem I see from this way of looking at netbooks is that smartphones make lousy input devices for decent sized bodies of text. Heck, I don’t even like commenting on blogs from my smartphone.

They can be great for any number of other things, but they are severely limited for content creation, generally. (Obviously, the New Yorker cover proves that is is possible, but it doesn’t prove that it is easy enough for regular usage.)

Until smartphones get better for serious text input, there will continue to be a big place for something with a larger keyboard. Carrying an folding attachable or bluetooth keyboard is one answer, but so long as you are carrying both, why not just carry a netbook? With bluetooh earpieces and voice driven interaction with phones and media devices — see the latest iPhone3GS, whose voice driven interaction is two way — the fact that the netbook in is a purse, backpack or shoulderbag does not prevent it from being used as a phone and media player, too.

I guess I’m a vast minority with my position. I had an iPhone and eventually got a unibody mac. for the price, it seemed basically like an expensive toy. I had a pc desktop that I used for gaming and photoshop, which are really the only things besides the basic computer functions I used. I moved and left the desktop behind, and just lived with the lack of those two activities.

with my macbook, I found myself skype video chatting, iming, using iTunes, web browsing, and as a media drive for photos. a netbook can do all of these for 800$ cheaper and be more portable. I’m also beginning to travel more and it seems the netbook would be a better choice for this as well. as I always have a bag of some sort, the fact it can’t fit in my pocket is no loss.

now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been an apple fanboy for over 15 years, and absolutely loved the MacBook, but I just didn’t /need/ what it had to offer – especially for almost 1000$ more

so I sold it and will be buying a netbook within the next few months. as far as the smartphone goes, I really love the iPhone. google maps and mobile browser basically ensured my survivability, or at least my general comfort after moving to los angeles. there’s a lot it can’t do, though. other than the fact I need /some/ way to browse the net, google maps is the only thing that’s making me keep it. I want something I don’t have to baby/worry about so much. also something less than 80 a month. I know I can get a mobileroadband adaptor for computer, but I still need to research before I mess with that.

to summarize, browsing on my phone leaves me wishing for a
bigger screen and keyboard. I’m more alone than I expected in the matter that I’ll be using a netbook for my primary computer – cheap, portable, and while maybe not “good,” it’s “good enough.”

Just a small note. I love what is said about notebooks. Having recently bought a laptop, i agree they don’t deliver ENOUGH of anything to be signifcant unless you were literally looking for something to do very ‘LIGHT’ work light writing word docs, inputing excels, etc (i.

But in contrast I’m just not on board with how he uses smartphones. Because most of them also lack form factors that you need on the go and can’t get at times. If you need things are a glance or check it or jot notes smarts phones are the most awesomest gadgets ever. But once you need more you’re lost. If you need to stop and write and article, doing some light redesigns, input info into your excel (quickly), your smart phone is freaking useless or atleast not very useful.

I don’t know if there’s a middle ground or not but that’s my two cents.

Ok, so netbooks are lame because they’re not the best for mobile computing… but what if that’s not why you want one?

You say that netbooks will “evolve” to be another kind of laptop, but they already are. Most people who buy netbooks – including me – aren’t looking for a mobile computing experience. They’re looking for a laptop that doesn’t cost an arm, doesn’t weigh a ton, and does what they need it to do – in my case, allow me to write easily when I’m away from home.

I own a smartphone. When I want to check my e-mail quick, I grab that. When I want to write, no smartphone is anything but extremely annoying for the task. The fact that my netbook has wifi only means that I don’t have to go between two devices if I’ve got wifi coverage – it’s a convenience, not a necessity.

You can say that the laptop is the computer in the zone of suck. Somewhat more powerful then a netbook but more expensive and much less portable. It more portable then a desktop but also much less powerful and more expensive,

Ry said:

Food for thought: That smartphone costs you at the very least $199 plus a 3 year data+call plan contract ($30 just for the data plan every month).

I have my iPhone 3G on Prepay. I’m a lite user and spend around $10 a month.

A few more thoughts:

1) ‘The smartphone is expensive!!! $3000 or so over the life of the contract.’ What, if you didn’t have the smartphone you wouldnt have a cell at all? You’d incur some or most of that cost anyway with a regular cell.

2) ‘I have a big desktop that does everything I need, the netbook is nice for occasional portability’, ‘I traveled the world’ etc. Yep. but when you replace that desktop I bet most of you will consider a laptop and for most people the difference in power is not important. But of course there will always be people who want a big desktop to render stuff or who are taking long trips around the world… those are edge cases though.

3) ‘Netbooks are selling well!’ Yep. let’s see in 3 years. Initially, they’re cheap enough to try out and see what the fuss is. Come on, $200? Most people will bu one out of curiosity alone. You don’t need a lot to justify that purchase… but will they buy another when this one dies? Or have a lot of those buyers gone “eh, it’s not bad” and aren’t enthused enough to buy a second one in 2,3 or 4 years?

Btw, for those suggesting that Apple is late to the game with their own Netbook, they effectively sold one roughly 12 years ago. The eMate 300 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMate_300) is about as close to being a Netbook as the original Netbook was, sans the Wi-Fi networking that didn’t exist as a consumer option back then: it was much smaller than the laptops of the time yet had a full keyboard, it was lightweight, had desktop class apps (though running on a lightweight OS, Newton), and for its time was comparatively cheap. Unlike netbooks though, it also had very decent battery life (over 20 hours on a single charge). 😉

Posted to provide some perspective to the impression that Netbooks are somehow a new phenomenon (btw, I don’t mean to imply that Apple invented this form factor either – there were plenty of small Windows laptops back then too, e.g. from Sony, which would probably be called Netbooks today).

With all due respect to Michael Critz, I never said an Apple tablet would be a great idea.

What I said is that a tablet form factor may be a different product category from a laptop and a hand-held device because you interact with it in a different way. In other words, my thesis is that different product categories come about when we have a thing we interact with in a different way. Thus, a toaster is different from a toaster oven because we interact with a toaster in a different way than we interact with a toaster oven–despite the fact that both have heater elements and both can make toast. Thus, my in-car navigation system is different from my hand-held GPS, despite the fact that both draw maps and plot my location on a map, and both can give directions to a given location–because one is a hand-held thing I hold, and the other is in my car.

A netbook is not a different product category than a laptop; it’s just a small, cheap laptop. However, the iPhone is a different product category because we interact with it in a different way. A tablet may be a different product category; if it is designed so we interact with it in a different way then it’s a different product category. But if a tablet requires me to boot it up and use it on a table top, and runs the same old operating system (MacOS X, Windows XP, etc) then it’s just a laptop I don’t have to unfold.

The article has some points, but it ignores several important things about netbooks.
The price: if you compare an non contract iphone to a netbook the iphone costs 300% more. Even with the contract subsidy they are almost equal in price, and the netbook can be used without a contract.
Handheld use: with a swivel hinge and a touchscreen a netbook becomes a tablet that is easily used handheld.
Volume: with the economy in the toilet and the CA interest in open source textbooks and netbooks becoming cheap enough to become the etextbook, schools are going to be purchasing zillions.
Browsing and using web apps is much more practical on a netbook.
Netbooks can run standard desktop apps, so they are easily your backup work machine.

Drew said:

Using Joeys own flawed argument I could claim that there is no market for a laptop computer – you’ve got a desktop with a full sized keyboard and big screen when you’re at home, or a smartphone for when you go out.

Joey says to look at what people are buying. When people buy their primary computers, they buy laptops, not desktops.

Nobody would dream of replacing their main computer with a phone.

Nobody would dream of replacing their desktop computer with a laptop. Nobody would dream of replacing their PDA with a phone.

Here’s the golden question:

Who actually owns a netbook and still agrees with the conclusions of this article? Most of the people mocking netbooks have never used one, let alone own one. The last person I told about them thought that their iPod Touch was ‘just as good’.

Being an owner of all three types of device, I must say I respectfully disagree with everything in this article. For mobile computing, I have an N97 (I work for Nokia as a test engineer). For netbook, I have an Asus 1000H, and for laptop, I have an HP Pavillion.

I’m not going to get into a full heated debate, but there are many tasks that a mobile phone cannot do effectively compared to a netbook. For example, you can’t really effectively use any Window based software on a mobile phone, such as MATLAB or powerpoint. You might argue that you can do it on a Laptop, but 90% of the time, I honestly do not need the full capability of a heavy dual core 15″ screen laptop. A 1.7GHz netbook is more than capable. I move around a lot too, and having a 2lb netbook provides the best compromise compared to a 6lb laptop.

Not to mention that the Intel atom chip used by most netbooks is very fast, very battery efficient, and very cheap. Technology and support for netbooks will only get better.

Baton – i share your dream, that a tiny device with wirelessly connect to larger screen and keyboard. i actually expected the itouch or iphone to do just that, but they just haven’t gotten on the ball yet. So until then, laptops will stick around.

Joey – i couldn’t agree with you less. Well, maybe I could. I see your point on the terminal-style net/computers. They never really caught on. But netbooks are already on an entirely different scale. Just look around. They’re producing and selling more models every month. People are actually dropping thier old laptops and moving to smaller, cheaper computers that perform the same tasks. And why shouldn’t they?

In honesty, I believe one of two things. This article was either written just for points on the search engines, or it was based on the very earliest of netbooks, the EEE 701, which was extremely limited as a device. In the case of the EEE 701 and other netbooks like it, I certainly agree. The screen was too small (7 inches and 800×640 WTF??) the keyboard was useless, a 600mhz processor (!!?) and the hard drive was only up to 4 gigs. It was a pile of almost useless crap hardware that only ran a watered-down version of a Linux operating system.

However, netbooks have much better keyboards, screens, full sized 250 gig hard drives and run Windows XP, and Vista, meaning you can install all the same software as you could on your other computers.

-Shrug-

Happy computing!

My netbook has more performance than my 5-yr old laptop minus the CD player. 90% of my computing is word processing and internet.

I bet half the laptop snobs don’t go anywhere near the capability of their machines, and if they do, more power to them, but I know what I need. It’s like bragging about how badass your Ferrari is while driving the speed limit.

I’ve got a machine that does exactly what I need for 1/4 the price, 60% of the weight., and 50% of the volume.

Personally, I hate smart phones. A million features I never use. Read a smartphone review these days… whens the last time any review covered the quality of the antenna, voice quality, or range. All they ever talk about is how good the camera or music player is.

One of these days though, the dream of something the power of a netbook, the size of a smart phone, and can use a external monitor, keyboard, and mouse will come along…. that will be a dream machine.

Perhaps the iPad would work well for the Jester burger analogy here instead of smartphones?

I disagree with the article. Netbooks were created for a specific segment of the consumer population and made specifically to fill these people’s needs : It’s tailored for people that want a small, battery efficient portable computer with a proper keyboard for typing they can take with them everywhere and actually use for many hours before getting it charged.

Yes, we get it, Notebooks are much better as a desktop replacement nowadays… You can get high-end Notebooks that can run most software and games a thousand time better than a netbook, which will struggle multitasking internet browsing with MSN messenging… Let alone be able to play any modern day game.

But let’s face it, your so called Notebook can only run on battery life for a couple of hours before being being a dead heavyweigt in it’s carrying bag. On the other hand, netbooks are designed exclusively for low power consumption, giving you 8 and more hours of battery life per charge…

I’ll be the first one to agree, in the near future, Netbooks will probably be phased out in favor of better, more energy efficient Notebooks of smaller size and weight, but the very existence of Netbooks made people realise that a Portable PC actually needs to be portable, not requiring to be constantly tethered to a power line to be of any use.

For anyone that needs daily computing on the go, having about 8 hours without a charge (which is coincidently the duration of a workday or school day) is a godsend . Besides, in the end of the day, you have a great PC at home anyway, so the need for a portable Notebook that can play high-end content is relatively low… Netbooks are the truly portable alternative to home PCs…

I bought a netbook because I wanted a power efficient PC that would last me for a whole school day of Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and internet reaserch in the middle of an amphitorium where no power sockets are avialable.

I’m sure I’m not the only person in need of such device, and I really don’t think anybody is stupid enough to try to use Smartphone or even Ibook to take notes during a course, unless they fancy trying to keep up with vocal speech on a virtual keyboard while typing on their viewing screen… And I doubt anyone with a 3 hour battery life Notebook can even think of using his device as a writing medium, let alone as a truly portable computer.

(How about looking at your screen and pressing your touch screen for 8 hours everyday).

Because many people want to use their PC in school during a 6 hour course

But having a portable Netbook you can use while sitting in the middle of an amphitorium during an university course

typing your course or watching a teacher’s power p

so why even need a beat of a Notebook when you can lug around a small notebok that allows you to check your mails, run Power Point presentations, and need a Portable PC for stuff like

, but Notebooks have crappy battery life… I mean why even make a battery powered device when the hardware inside drains said batteries in two hours, leaving you out of juice and scrambling for a power outlet. In the end, Notebooks are anything but portable… Sure it’s more useful than lugging arround a PC screen, speakers, a Tow

Of course you have smartphones and ibooks with virtual keyboards and similar things

. It’s not a ferrari and it won’t run high-end games and software, but it’s capable

I got myself a Sony Vaio netbook last year. A W Series to be exact. It’s functionality is fine when I am taking notes for class, browsing the web in the most BASIC of sites, and little else.

I can’t make PowerPoint presentations, play games, use iTunes, or edit videos without significant slowdown, and the system was not that much cheaper than a standard laptop despite its rather compressed 1GB hard drive and barely-cuttin-it 1.6Ghz processor speed. The resolution is a joke and I can’t even install the software for my new camera (which I just got for Christmas), or my Blackberry because it does not have a disk drive.

Indeed, I got my netbook knowing that it would not perform up to the level of my previous laptop (a 17″ high end Sony Vaio which crashed, leaving half the hard drive inoperable), but my semi-functional laptop outperforms the netbook in almost every aspect, and it is a 2007 model!

I am getting a Sony Vaio CE series soon, and will keep the W as a backup. Nonetheless, I can’t wait to shelf it. I don’t think netbooks should be made “transitional” technology, they need to be rendered obsolete.