According to Intel, netbooks were initially expected to gain popularity in developing countries, but in the last twelve months they have been selling like hot cakes in developed countries. In spite of all that, chipmaker AMD has decided to ignore what it calls a mere fad and to focus on ultra-thin hardware in the line of the Apple Air.
Until 2007, the laptop market worked in this way: the latest hardware was used in top end laptops targeted at gamers, creatives and businesses; while the remaining hardware from previous years eventually cascaded the price scale down to a minimum of 500 bucks. Prices could not be trimmed below that figure.
Most “low-skill” computer owners I know need a device for tasks that could are singlehandedly executed by a PDA (ie: the iPhone): processing email and text , browsing the Internet, VOIP, managing music and pictures, streaming Flash content and occasionally watching movies. It did beg the question thus, that there should exist something between a PDA and a laptop.
Sony and OQO attempted to build ultralight laptops, but their expensive products were meant to be at the top of processing power. Asus started from the bottom and focused on portability and cost-saving. For that reason, they chose to:
- forgo the hard disk and keep the flash memory to the bare minimum
- include a small screen
- forgo any kind of paid-for operating system
Palm amost had it right with its ill-born Foleo, but Asus stroke a home run with its eee line. Priced around US$ 199, the Linux-operated netbook met with success and was quickly followed by the Acer Aspire.
In terms of specifications, full-feature low-end computers can hardly threaten high-end ones. But the trick is that before netbooks were invented, “low-skilled” customers like my friends had no choice but to purchase a laptop. Now that the latter finally gets the very product that meets their needs, chip makers are worried that the resulting decline in laptop sales and the low margin on netbooks will drastically reduce their profits. That calculation does not however take in account that consumers might be enclined to purchase more netbooks per household than they would have done with laptops. In a family of four, one $200 netbook per person could be a much more flexible alternative than a single $800 laptop that everyone has to line up for.
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