Study: Consumers confused over Netbooks vs. notebooks
Quick question: What's the difference between a Netbook and a notebook? Apparently, a lot of people aren't sure.
Only 58 percent of consumers who bought a Netbook over a notebook said they were very satisfied with their purchase, according to a study released Tuesday by researcher NPD Group. That compares with a 70 percent satisfaction rate from consumers who planned on buying a Netbook from the start.
NPD found that the level of dissatisfaction stemmed from confusion over the capabilities of a Netbook. The study, "NPD's Netbooks II: A Closer Look," discovered that 60 percent of the people questioned bought a Netbook instead of a notebook thinking the two have the same functionality.
In general, Netbooks are smaller, cheaper, and less powerful than traditional notebooks, but the line is blurring.
Among the people surveyed for the study, performance and portability were two key factors in the decision of whether to buy a Netbook or a notebook. Among 18 to 24 year olds, 65 percent said they bought a Netbook expecting better performance. But only 27 percent said their Netbooks performed better than expected.
NPD asked consumers which was the more important factor in choosing a Netbook: portability or price? Around 60 percent chose portability, while about 40 percent were more driven by pricing. However, 60 percent of buyers admitted that after the purchase, they never took their Netbooks out of the house.
"We need to make sure consumers are buying a PC intended for what they plan to do with it," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. "Retailers and manufacturers can't put too much emphasis on PC-like capabilities and general features that could convince consumers that a Netbook is a replacement for a notebook. Instead, they should be marketing mobility, portability, and the need for a companion PC to ensure consumers know what they are buying and are more satisfied with their purchases."
Speaking to CNET News, Baker further noted that the operating system on the Netbook proved important to buyers, more so than brand, since consumers seem open to many different brands.
"People really value what the operating system is," said Baker. "That was basically the No. 1 feature that they were concerned about. Brand wasn't quite so important."
From the survey results, Baker also found that online stores are a major source for Netbooks--40 percent of the consumers questioned bought their Netbooks over the Internet. Third-party outlets seem to be competing heavily against the manufacturers' own Web sites.
"I think Netbooks are a product type that do better online," said Baker. "It's not as stressful a purchase. Given the fact that these aren't real configurable products, it's just as easy for somebody to buy at Amazon as it is at HP.com."
The study was based on a survey completed in May by nearly 600 adult consumers from NPD's online panel who were identified as Netbook owners.
Lance Whitney wears a few different technology hats--journalist, Web developer, and software trainer. He's a contributing editor for Microsoft TechNet Magazine and writes for other computer publications and Web sites. You can follow Lance on Twitter at @lancewhit. Lance is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and he is not an employee of CNET. 
And, to further the confusion, let's throw in a variety of cabling alternatives, and even make some of the names sound almost the same: Composite or Component, anyone? And do you remember when you could just plug the L and R cables into your stereo for really sweet sound? Not anymore since the artificial nature of technically unsound 7.1 has taken over (because that's not the way life really sounds).
So, why did the marketers think that calling a netbook a name so similar to a notebook wouldn't cause confusion? And what makes it a netbook? Because it's not very powerful? No, because otherwise maybe we should call older notebook computers netbooks. Because it's small? No, since there are plenty of very small notebooks. Because it has to have a network connection to work? No, since they come with larger hard drives than notebooks did just a year or two ago, and run just fine without a network connection. Because they don't have a CD or DVD drive? No, since even some desktops come without these external media drives. Netbooks are defined by an arbitrary line that causes confusion because because the marketers couldn't come up with a name that truly differentiated the product, it's hard to define the functionality of a netbook apart from a notebook, and because that arbitrary line is constantly moving in the direction of more power to the netbook owner--to the point that tomorrow's netwook owner will have the processing power of today's notebook owner. --mark d.
I will never understand how someone can use a smartphone, Facebook, and google every day, yet be totally ignorant about where to turn for information. It's gotten to the point where people don't even TRY to get an answer, then complain about how society is moving too fast for them.
Again, I look at the DTV transition. TEN years that went on, was delayed at the cost of MILLIONS to taxpayers, and STILL people were "confused." Sometimes, people are just beyond help, and that's not my problem, it's theirs. This is the United States, not Osama Bin Laden's cave. ASK if you need info.
Have budget....
Meet needs.
Buy Notebook - Buy Netbook...
But what they understand is, Amazingly Low Price + "Cute" Form Factor + XP = Who cares what its called I want it
almost the entire tech industry suffers from this, meanwhile half of the population think's that we're a bunch of propeller-heads and have no clue about life. These people have high disposable incomes, would love for our products to help them have a better life, but can't stand the uppity attitude so they walk away. Brilliant
However I bought it KNOWING it was a slow pile. It runs XP on it's tiny atom CPU and 9" screen. It's "good enough" to take with me on short trips when I don't want to bring my real laptop. I boggle at the thought of people using this as a primary machine. I love my iphone for web/e-mail on the go but I wouldn't use that as my primary machine either.
I feel bad for people that bought a netbook thinking it was just a "small laptop" rather than a new class of low end computer. That said I can't feel too bad since these things are in the $300 range, *** were people expecting?
Cody
The only thing that doesn't work well is Silverlight. Stutter city. Watching the processor meter, it uses 2-3x the resources as Apple's H.264 decoder, and 50% more resources than Flash 10 player. So, might it simply be that MS products are "slow piles" and not the machine itself?
While the cheap netbooks drive traffic in the store, the retailer is probably going to lose between $50 and $100 from each sale (thats right, they buy them for $600 and sell them for $500). It's kinda backwords logic, but I'm sure there's some calculation out there that shows the increased traffic will pay off in the long run, hoping they will buy other higher margin items as well.
Thats also why the salespeople and in-store techs hound you so bad to buy the warrenty or anti-virus. It offstes the margin loss.
Most retailers who have competent sales people, try to upsell the customer to a more powerful machine, and for two reasons. A: higher margin (most likely unless it is a sale item) and revenue, and B: they actually want their customer to be satisfied.
You get someone who sees two boxes that look the same. One says $400 and the other says $800. No matter how you try to explain it, they think a PC is a PC. Too many people come in and see 1.8ghz and 512MB of RAM, and they think, "Hey, my computer right now only has 512MB ram, so this one should be ok, not realizing that they use XP and the new one has Vista. They take it home and its actually slower than their orignal.
So I blame the consumer, not for being ignorant, but for being stupid.
Ignorance is when you dont know the right thing.
Stupidity is when your told the right thing and you still do the wrong thing.
The typical consumer looks at a notebook-like computer and expects it do notebook-like things; they don't realize how much compromise they have made by giving up dollars and size. Netbook manufacturers are clearly doing a poor job in communicating what sort of expectations the customers should have.
You can hack some to run OS X, but that's still a hack, is a little complicated, violates EULA (no support), etc. But at least once you do that, it's fully functional.
Given an HP100, they'll say, "It's a computer, waddayamean I can't rip and edit my DVD collection on it."
Netbooks are limited in speed by Microsoft, plain and simple. The reason Atoms are topping out below 2GHz is they MUST or Intel can't sell them in bulk. The reason there is 1GB of RAM when 2GB is cheap is because MS says so. The reason people are balking at their netbook experience is because MS created this problem.
If Windows 7 is cleared for netbooks and runs well, this may change. Assuming MS allows faster processor and more memory. A 1.83GHz dual core Atom with 2GB of RAM should do everything the average big box buyer needs.
I want you to think of every electrical or motorized appliance or device you use every day. Now pretend for a moment that this appliance breaks. Would you know how to fix it? Would you know how to make it run faster? would you know how to change the motor? Do you know the history of its evolution? And most importantly, do you care?
Chances are most people here would answer 'no' to all of these questions. And yet you expect these items to work. You also expect that if they break, you can throw them out or get them fixed without too much trouble. You would think someone was insane if, say, someone expected every person from New York to Ho Chi Minh City, regardless of age, gender, or ability to know exactly how a stereo works, and to be able to rewire or update one to make it work. And if that person looked down on you for not agreeing with him or her, you'd see that person as a jerk. Even more so, if that person said that anyone who could not easily differentiate between various stereo systems from various corporation on-site, and wasn't easily able to access or understand information on the differences was a moron, you'd be ticked off at that person's arrogance.
Computers are no longer magic boxes for nerds. They are toasters. They are cars. An elderly person can purchase and drive a car without knowing the specs of a Wankel engine or what constitutes fuel injection. So can a teenager. Neither one is stupid because size, color, and trunk space might be more important than exact specs for mileage. The people who tend to care about engines in detail are called 'car buffs', and non car buffs pay little to no attention to them. Yet both the teen and the old person would not be foolish to assume that both cheap and expensive cars have working engines and can hit 60 miles an hour without too much trouble, because that's pretty standard. Unless a car is really unusual and is advertised widely as such, people aren't morons to expect that it will work in the usual fashion, and that they can take the car to somebody else for maintenance without having to do that work themselves.
Netbooks are not unusual enough for most people to inquire about them. They need to be advertised as what they really are. Most people don't read tech sites; I know tons of people who don't even own a cell phone, let alone a laptop or desktop. But regardless of whether people are 'morons' or not, they are potential consumers whose needs and concerns need to be addressed in order for companies to make money.
- by anthrogirl June 26, 2009 4:06 PM PDT
- Sorry- they are unusual enough.
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