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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
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nomo
Average Member
814 Posts |
 Posted - 09/16/2008 : 17:01:00
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quote:
Originally posted by NigelS
HP reports raging sales of their new netbook: http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=14333
Has anyone seen actual sales figures posted? I've seen a number of qualitative quotes ("better than expected" sales, percentage growth, etc) but haven't seen any dollar or unit sales numbers. It was initially reported that HP reserved production capacity for 2 million units. I am curious as to how well the 2133 is selling in quantifiable terms. |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
Posted - 09/21/2008 : 22:38:58
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| Today I saw an HP, Acer and MSI netbook operating side by side. Not bad, but without the gloss that photographs have, you can see you are stricktly getting what you pay for. The 10 inch "matt"-ish screen on the MSI is a little dull next to the 8 inch Acer screen. The machines are a little plasticky and without a distinguishing innovation between them (other than low price), they seem a little childish to someone spoiled all these years by the all the design boundaries broken by Fujitsu. I am still in the dark about performance tho'. Perhaps that is where the bang-for-the-buck is at.... |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
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nomo
Average Member
814 Posts |
Posted - 09/29/2008 : 21:09:38
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Liliputing reported that Czech electronics manufacturer Eltrinex introduced the MobilePC, a 10.2-inch netbook with 1.6GHz VIA C7-M, 1GB RAM, 320GB HDD, AGB wireless, two USB ports, ethernet, bluetooth, Windows XP, 2200mAh battery, and an external DVD-RW (included). The unit weighs 2.6 pounds and sells for the equivalent of US$700-$760.
Click to view larger image |
Edited by - nomo on 09/29/2008 21:21:09 |
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tmt
Advanced Member
2769 Posts |
Posted - 09/30/2008 : 06:48:31
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D@mn these machines are boring. Prices are ok, but frankly, just about what the things
are actually worth.
Everything about them is about half what we'd tolerate in a real laptop. Well, I guess
"half" has its place, too.
Tom. |
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nomo
Average Member
814 Posts |
Posted - 10/14/2008 : 20:04:22
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Samsung NC10 coming to the USA:
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
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oion
Advanced Member
USA
2231 Posts |
Posted - 10/29/2008 : 11:11:25
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I saw this in the physical paper a couple days ago:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4c92f330-a38e-11dd-942c-000077b07658.html
quote:
Demand for the devices “has been growing dramatically faster than we had thought”, added Bob O’Donnell of IDC, another tech research firm. IDC is set to raise its forecast for worldwide sales of the new machines this year to 10.8m, rising in 2009 to 20.8m, or 11-12 per cent of the entire laptop market, he said.
Interesting. If the projections are on-target, 11% of the total laptop market is pretty substantial. I haven't seen percentage numbers for the subnotebook/laptop ratio, but I have seen numbers for the 2007-2008 period that indicate total laptop sales are about equal to desktop sales, if not more. So speaking in general, even if netbooks this year into next year take up "only" 5-6% of entire computer sales, that's impressive for something essentially developed just this summer.
I still have mixed feelings re:disposability in my other thread, but surely part of my meh-ness arises from the fact that the traditional subnotebook market itself should tank faster and more completely than other segments of the laptop market. I saw a eee-something at Best Buy the other day but didn't have a chance to really play with it. I think the keyboard looked awfully glossy, unless I'm mixing it up with a different model; for the five seconds that I poked it, it felt really like a plastic chiclet toy. Hmmm.
A quote at the end of the Financial Times article above had me smirking, though:
quote:
Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple, last week ruled out for now the idea of a miniature laptop from the maker of iconic consumer devices such as the iPod and the iPhone. ”We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that,” he said.
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
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oion
Advanced Member
USA
2231 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2008 : 12:29:18
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Faster "feature escalation" makes me wonder when these "netbooks" will fully eclipse the traditional subnotebooks, if at all.
And what the heck is AMD doing? I thought they were making a comeback in overall market versus Intel a few years ago, but I haven't been paying attention lately (again). It's one thing for Apple to ignore netbooks for their general build crappiness, but CPUs are another thing entirely. Huh.
Edit: Well, okay, now that I finished reading that article... I'd be happy if AMD really got into the subnotebook market, ignoring the Intel-driven Netbook hype. But the question remains, with the stats I posted from that article before, whether the Netbook phenom is really overhyped or not. |
Edited by - oion on 12/07/2008 12:32:27 |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
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oion
Advanced Member
USA
2231 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2008 : 17:29:28
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quote:
Originally posted by NigelS
Acer comes out in front in netbook sales - netbook arrival timed perfectly to soothe consumers during economic blow-out
I wonder if this is the (general) key right here. If we weren't in the recession slide, would this be as popular as it is at the moment? Hmmm. My consumers-are-greedy-for-the-buck senses are tingling.
quote:
2008 BestBuy Customer Comments resemble LeoG posters circa 2002:
Pfffft, old hat.  |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2008 : 18:43:05
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| Them kids today think they inVENTed the sub-notebook. Sheesh, back in my day we had all that and a bag of chips. |
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oceanabby
Junior Member
Canada
108 Posts |
Posted - 12/17/2008 : 17:37:38
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There are quite a few negative remarks about the netbooks here, but don't forget who's buying these things. It's the average Jill or Joe who surfs the net and types up something in Word once in a while. They can live quite happily with what to most of us savvy subnote veterans looks like a crippled toy. Specs don't matter. If someone can do everything they want or need to do with it, that's what counts.
A lot of gamers scoffed at the idea of the Nintendo Wii with its low power graphics, cutsey design, and at the time, relatively low price. But it was brilliant. It gets people who would never buy a gaming console buying a gaming console. The netbooks are the same. They get people who would otherwise never buy a laptop buying a laptop.
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tmt
Advanced Member
2769 Posts |
Posted - 12/17/2008 : 19:55:35
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Yeah, but the Wii did something no other gaming console did. The Netbooks just have
less of everything. Well, obviously it was time for a change! I still don't want one. 
Tom. |
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oceanabby
Junior Member
Canada
108 Posts |
Posted - 12/17/2008 : 22:49:02
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Having less of everything and slashing the price is the innovation. It didn't make sense for all those average people to pay for the CPU power and features they never used.
I don't want one either, but I can think of a lot of people they would be perfect for. |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
Posted - 12/17/2008 : 23:49:16
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"...I can think of a lot of people they would be perfect for..."
Our friend DOT for one. Just think - her 1120 cost $2000 when it came out. She's used it well past it's recycle date, and then found a suitable / comparable replacement for less that 1/4 of the original price. There's plenty of room for netbooks in the world, and obviously loads of people are taking advantage. Neat, considering this all started as a way to give laptops to every PC-free child in the world. ( http://laptop.org/en/ ) While the free PC idea is still percolating, netbooks are getting that dream under way. Given that LeoG members have been a little starved for inspired innovation in the "most expensive" category, it is only natural to see some damning posts regarding the netbook ( I myself cringe during my in-person encounter with most netbooks ) but I still hope that in the long run the inventive licence happening with netbook engineering rubs off on the big boys. On another note - it is a striking marketing fact that netbooks' sales are so much higher than similar tablets. People seem to have been waiting for the traditional laptop form factor in a cheap small package. The economy is definitely going to 'up' sales, and while that is not very 'green' environment-wise, it will be good for notebook R&D (I hope). |
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oion
Advanced Member
USA
2231 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2008 : 11:17:38
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quote:
Originally posted by oceanabby
Having less of everything and slashing the price is the innovation. It didn't make sense for all those average people to pay for the CPU power and features they never used.
I don't want one either, but I can think of a lot of people they would be perfect for.
Oh, that's definitely the market. Why would Wal-mart be so popular otherwise? It's all about the buck, the microeconomics, that's driving this thing, and I'm amused that many industry pundits have been surprised by the popularity. But it makes perfect sense; I remember the late 1990s mininotebooks that were $2000, and these are essentially identical (assuming basic, average technology of the time period) with only the price difference. But what the price difference!
Considering nearly everything is made in Chinese sweatshops these days compared to when electronics were often made in Japan, it's easy to find a way to cut that price. I mean, I've never understood the use of foreign cheap labor like Chinese labor for things like $10 purses that would eventually be branded to some ridiculous $300 marketing ploy. The textiles industry is especially ludicrous in this sense. As for netbooks, I'm assuming the profit margin lies in quantity of units sold and not the brand markup per unit.
Even my dad was taken in by a printed advertisement for one of these chiclet toys by sheer price--"A laptop for $300!!"--but I had to tell him that it's smaller than my P-7k, and there was no way he could read the screen comfortably. But he still insisted that someone in our family could use it because....IT'S SO DAMN CHEAP. Oh well. I made sure he didn't buy it. There will always be consumers who ultimately buy something purely for price, regardless of whether or not they'd be satisfied with the actual technology. And there are plenty of people who will never drop $2k for a computer, but $400 is doable. (I admit that the price has even tempted me, although the redundancy would be silly. Moreover, when I saw them at Best Buy the other day, I wanted to bite them. They really do look like candy.  )
Maybe all the used netbooks can be trickled into all the poor countries, as NigelS implied.
To be honest, though, I'm not considering this an absolute market change until the full-featured subnotebooks that we know and love are actually pushed off shelves because of this. I don't see that happening right now, anyway, but we're on the cusp of potential. |
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NigelS
Senior Member Member
Canada
1339 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2008 : 15:17:04
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"...I'm not considering this an absolute market change until the full-featured subnotebooks that we know and love are actually pushed off shelves because of this..."
I wandered in to our local Sony big box store this weekend. It was empty of customers and the sales staff were having an argument. I can't imagine them selling one TT this Christmas (altho the guy offered me $100 off the top). I'll definitely be watching to see if Sony can stubbornly stick to their posh marketing policies through the next year. |
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oion
Advanced Member
USA
2231 Posts |
Posted - 12/18/2008 : 17:08:04
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I was just thinking it would be hilarious if--
1) the current crop of expensive subnotebooks were shoved off shelves and replaced by these netbooks, and then
2) consumers, being just as greedy as corporations, continually demand upgrades and more features, which
3) increase the base price point (or at least the price range) of netbooks until
4) the classic subnotebook is reinvented through repeat evolution, perhaps at a lower base price point compared to the last evolution.
My irony senses would be tingling with amusement.  |
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Netbooks have arrived
