The next wave of small computers is set to hit the market place, with tens of millions being sold during the last half of 2008. But the computer industry is not excited about these new devices, since they view these smaller systems will cut into their already slim profit margins. Since some of these units sell for $300 or less, the industry sees smaller profit margins on these new netbooks. But according to one article, companies like Dell, Acer & HP are not going to let the new guys steal the market place.
The companies that pioneered the category were small too, like Asus and Everex, both of Taiwan.
Despite their wariness of these slim machines, Dell and Acer, two of the biggest PC manufacturers, are not about to let the upstarts have this market to themselves. Hewlett Packard, the world’s biggest PC maker, recently sidled into the market with a hybrid of a notebook and netbook that it calls the Mini-Note.
Several makers are taking the low-powered PCs one step further. In the coming months, they are expected to introduce “net-tops,” low-cost versions of desktop computers intended for Internet access.
A Silicon Valley start-up called CherryPal says it will challenge the idea that big onboard power is required to allow basic computing functions in the Internet age. On Monday it plans to introduce a $300 desktop PC that is the size of a paperback and uses two watts of power compared with the 100 watts of some desktops.
It wants to take advantage of the trend toward “cloud computing,” in which data is managed and stored in distant servers, not on the actual machine.
These new netbooks also offer something else that their larger brothers also do not. First their is energy efficency dues to their smaller size and greener cpu’s from Intel. Also most of these netbooks will be using Microsoft Windows XP or a varient of Linux.
In addition there may, just may, be another benefit of these mini-computers for us consumers. If sales of the little guys take off, the large companies could lower prices further on their larger laptop systems down the road. We will see if this happens during the Christmas season this years. One example of lower pricing was the sale Wal-Mart had last weekend for a Toshiba system for $398. The system itself was well featured except for the anemic Celeron processor which is not a power house when it comes to running Vista.
What do you think? Will you buy one of the mini computers or will you stick with the bigger laptops?
Comment welcome.
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I will keep my 17″ laptop and my 26″ desktop. I think the little guys have a place in the business world as a great notepad, email access and web surfer. I just don’t believe I want to do any serious work on it. I like having multiple windows open side by side. My biggest fear is what will everyone do once XP support is totally gone? Sure you can keep using XP on your EEE, but for how long?
[...] Computer Industry Is Not Bullish On Small Computers The next wave of small computers is set to hit the market place, with tens of millions being sold during the last half of 2008. But the computer industry is not excited about these new devices, since they view these smaller systems will … Lockergnome – http://wp3.lockergnome.com [...]
I’ve had an ASUS eee 4g since about January. I’ve enjoyed taking care of my internet tasks while stretched out on the couch watching tv (already on the eee) with the eee on my belly. For fancy office-type stuff I type it up on googledocs and print it out at the public library here in Wyoming for 10 cents per page. It takes me back to the Radio Shack Model M100.
Power to the People
Pete
I would definitely buy a netbook-the Asus eeePC hacks are well known and documented on the web-even OSX and Vista was run on these machines.A micro distro like puppy would do better.With such choice,flexibility and low cost netbooks are a great idea