Comments on: Study: Consumers confused over Netbooks vs. notebooks

Only 58 percent of Netbook consumers are very satisfied with their purchases, an NPD Group report says. Unhappiness stems from confusion over capabilities of a Netbook.

[kaibelf]

Of course consumers are confused. They are morons. They were "confused" by digital TV too. There's no limit to the depths of stupidity that the slack-jawed populace will attain.

[markdoiron]

It's really not all the consumers fault. Let's face it, there have been a great many changes in the past decade. Remember when you plugged a TV in, attached the antenna and dialed in a channel? Remember when DTV meant Disney Television? What whiz-brain figured that they could use that for the transition to digital television--all at the same time as high definition was coming out?

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.

[Renegade Knight]

Reverse that. If businesses actually sold equipment that wors like consumers want it to work. There would be no problems. Alas business apears to be as slack jawed moronicly stupid as you say conaumers are. This is no suprise. All consumers work for the companies who can't figure it out.

[kaibelf]

I stand by my original comment. It's not that hard to ask someone with some knowledge questions about the difference. Ask an associate at the store. Use google. Use wiki. There are so many tools available these days, and a large number of them are part of everyday use.

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.

[jessiethe3rd]

Have need...
Have budget....

Meet needs.

Buy Notebook - Buy Netbook...

[BK216]

yea people in general are pretty clueless when it comes to computers.

But what they understand is, Amazingly Low Price + "Cute" Form Factor + XP = Who cares what its called I want it

[why do i need a name?]

I hope you're not running a business but sitting back in the lab somewhere writing code. Anyone who considers one of their customers a "moron" should never be allowed to interact with anyone who might want to voluntarily part with their money to buy something.


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

[krizhek]

Yeah we consider them morons when it comes to computers just like I am a moron when it comes to fixing a car. And business that realize their consumers are morons when it comes to XXX product and they can build a product that makes it easy enough for said moron to be happy then they get $$$$$.

[myles taylor]

No actually someone who is not knowledgeable is not a moron. The definition of a "moron" is "a stupid person", not someone who doesn't have knowledge on the subject. Someone is either a moron or they are not. You can't be a moron about some things and not others.

[codynews]

I bought a "netbook" (I use quotes because that name is stupid but I have to use it so people know what I'm tlkaing about) and it's a slow pile.

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

[ikramerica--2008]

I have the same netbook (probably) but mine is not a slow pile. Then again, I put OS X on mine, which adapts to lower memory and slower processors in a way XP just can't. I can watch HD content from iTunes store (trailers, I don't buy from them), Hulu, Youtube, etc. Multi-tasking with many open programs, background tasks, etc. is no problem. Safari renders really quickly, too. Wifi is fast, battery life is over 4 hours, no moving parts.

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?

[jmfb_k7]

It's most likely not the retailers fault as the article indicates.

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.

[cvaldes1831]

This is no surprise. The media has repeatedly reported that netbook return rates are very high (particularly those running Linux).

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.

[ikramerica--2008]

No, MS has a sub-optimal years old OS for it, they limit the speed and memory of the units by contract to allow that OS to be installed, and the alternative is Linux, which your average person won't understand (why doesn't this program run?).

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.

[jimofoz]

People don't see a limited power computer designed to basically browse the web when they buy a "netbook," all they see is a $300 computer. And to most people a computer is a computer, whether it's a $200 OLPC or a $3000 Dell Mobile Workstation.

Given an HP100, they'll say, "It's a computer, waddayamean I can't rip and edit my DVD collection on it."

[dudesmiles]

if apple doesn't make a netbook then netbooks are worthless. i hope u have fun cashing for M$ checks cnet. so bias!

[jchanski21]

I'm sorry, I missed the part where this article has anything to do with brands.

[markhahn]

why would the OS matter? netbooks are for lightweight web presence - people who buy them as cheap windows notebooks are going to be disappointed, no matter whether it's windows or linux. but ultimately, netbooks are merely another repercussion of moore's law: even the lowest-end CPU is now plenty fast for even what would have been considered fairly intensive use 5+ years ago. netbooks (and ultracheap cpus) aren't really something that vendors can opt out of: they are the inevitable consequence of development. you can't get faster cpus or nicer LCDs without driving down the price of older levels of product. what's surprising is that it's taken this long to break the expensive-notebook logjam.

[ikramerica--2008]

netbooks are not running 5 year old power hungry processors. They are running modern, low power, small die processors, faster memory, etc. So it's not even about what could be done 5 years ago. It's specifically what is being put inside now.

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.

[anthrogirl]

The answers here are interesting- but I think all of them are slightly (or greatly) off-base.

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.

[anthrogirl]

Sorry- they are unusual enough.