Comments on: Intel rethinks Netbooks: 'Fine for an hour' but...

The smallish designs may not be the next big thing after all. Intel, whose Atom chip powers most Netbooks, says it now foresees mostly incremental gains.

[SKETCHYPETE]

Some of you traditional laptop thought dewdz need to think for themselves and that's what I did so0000.

I am building an Dell mini 9 w/ 64Gb SSD w/ vastly improved read write times from the stock memory w/ 2g o' ram running Leopard. And a couple of DJ controllers and MIDI hitpad.


This equates to a real mean abelton/tracktor pro mobile disco for this DJ.

I can do all my party posts on myspace, resident advisor, sfhouse, sfstation, clubvibes, clubzone, napkin nights, evelvetrope, ovahere, metrowize, eventvibe, craiglist, upcoming. Wherever/whenever I wake up in the morning.

[Renegade Knight]

They always were a niche item. They have a lot of potential as that. For example as a media server where your TV services as the main screen. They would work well as an In Car computer. A tweak and your 7" slide out screen is the computer screen and your in dash stereo is the netbook. Heck slide in a remote control and work your living room AV equipment with it. they cost less than some universal remotes. They have uses. I doubt they will go away.

[MSSlayer]

I have a 17 inch, ten pound behemoth that is masquerading as a laptop. I have a friend who has one of those nice little machines by Asus.

I love mine for gaming, writing, and programming all day, but I hate lugging it around. That little machine is great to carry around and access the internet, use for presentations, etc. It is not good for day to day work. That doesn't mean it is a waste of money to own.

[derekaw]

I think that Intel would like us to not like netbooks so much. Intel make less on netbooks. If these things really catch on (and I think that they are) Intel will have real concerns about their future profit potential.

[Maclover1]

"Like me for example. I just sold my laptop, a powerful Dell XPS 13" because my netbook fulfilled all my needs on the go."

The key to what you say is "all my needs on the go". If I were a windows user, I could use that Dell 13" for all my needs period. I have a small server, 8gig of RAM, quad core, 1TB of disk space, running VMware ESXi (free version) and that is as close to a desktop I will come. One 13inch notebook, 320gig drive, 6gigs of RAM, 2.2ghz dual core CPU....fits all my need on the go or on the desk.

[benjwah]

I must be crazy.
When everyone was going for UMPC's, I had a 14-inch laptop, I upgraded to a 15-inch widescreen.

Now everyone's talking about netbooks, and I'm looking at a 17-inch widescreen.

I've never seen why a 13-inch notebook is that much easier to carry around than a 17-inch notebook. My 15-inch goes just about everywhere with me and doesn't cause me any probs at all.

[caseyddr]

you honestly think your laptop at 15in is equally easy to carry than a 8.9-10.2in laptop? You are delusional.

[compudoc318]

if youre complaning about a 15 in laptop, go to the gym....lol

[tcantrelln]

I've been researching the netbook and stumbled onto my solution at the Dell outlet page. I was beyond amazed at the numbers of Mini Inspirons on the 'Return-Scratch and dent-and Refurbished' listing. I'd be interested in some of the reasons, wouldn't you? My decision for right now is 'Wait for the dual core atom 1.6, genuine hard drive - or at least a 64gb ssd, and probably the 10inch screen.'

[tidepacific]

I don't know where you are coming from with this one thing. Acer and Asus offer many models, and one or two may be usefull for an houre, however, that's not what dealers buy for resale. The units bought by Big Bix are the ones with the 3 hour battery (aboout d3.5 hours use) so they can do (as they alkways try to do) show a low price. Those of us in the know bring in the units with a 6cell battery, enough opwoer to get you from LA to NewYork including wainting time, or from LA to Tokyo (given you will have dinner and breakfast ansd shut it off.)

So you're article does not really tell the reaal story about the Net Book, other than it was suppodsed to be the next big thing. Americans are great on bragging. But in this case, if the right story is told, the right information will be read and understood.

[docparkny]

I have a Macbook Pro 15inch, and love it, but want to use it gently. I find that lugging it with two spare batteries is too heavy. I bought an Acer Aspire One with six cell battery and 160gig hard drive that lasts 5-7 hours and fits perfectly on an airline tray. I agree it is slow if you try to run complex software, but find it perfectly adequate for running OpenOffice and Picasa and Safari. I blog and this machine is fine. I used to do EVERYTHING on my Psion Series 5mx back in the day, and had missed the portability. Despite the Windows XP, I am happy with it. Am toying with the idea of going with a Linux dual boot, but have so far found it unnecessary. The big problem with these netbooks is actually the available user interfaces - it is not helpful to have half the screen filled with the various function bars and have only a sliver of space to work. I use OpenOffice's wordprocessor in full screen mode and am happy with it. Browsing in full screen is better as well. Unless they come out with copy/paste and bluetooth keyboard for my iPhone, or bring down Macbook Air's price to 500-800 bucks, this is as good as it gets.

[daskino]

Why Intel does see the light in Netbooks? , Answer; A Atom processor sells for less than $15, A Intel Core 2 Duo processor sells for $100. When netbooks take over the laptop sales, Intel will not be able to command a price premium for their CPU, Falling laptop prices means falling revenue for Intel. Same goes for AMD. Netbooks will take over the market for Laptops , and maybe also from Smartphone?s, why pay $600 for a Samsung Ominia or Nokia E71 when you can get a cheap OEM netbook for less than $300 with larger screen and a big nice keyboard.

[Forked_Tongue]

I think many forget that you can run some of the screen size demanding applications when you "dock" this to your larger monitor (hdtv in a pinch) and plug in an usb keyboard and mouse or go wireless. In fact I can see in the future processors like the dual core Atom and even a dock station (of the likes we haven't seen yet) where it'll connect to something similar to a tower where you'll have a larger hard drive (sync), dvd rom (to install some programs/games), and even maybe an external pci-x for a video card to game with at home. What we're still looking at and experiencing is the infancy of netbooks, not their finality, and definitely not the death of it. I also think we may even see it where this remotely logs into your home network to your home server to stream media to it or access resources as well (I expect to see Windows home server take off, as well as Linux (just like Ubuntu desktop is getting refined and easier for the novice so will their server as well CentOS, Myth, etc) and even Mac introducing one as well). The future of media will not be Blue-ray, it will be streaming and download, future of mass storage will most likely be in the form of a cloud or home server, and really all you need is just enough hardware to entertain you for those internet downtimes by the ISP and the gamer which can be addressed in the form of a docking station (I expect to see one in the form similar to an express slot but more advanced) connecting it to discrete graphics, better gaming controllers, hdtv [future for monitors], and surround sound. The future is portable computing and how well it'll mesh and sync with what we have currently, and PC gaming will be reduced to a niche class (parents could care less if you game with the computer, they want it to supplement homework) and console gaming, I think we're on a paradigm shifting situation here, just like how laptops over took desktop sales I can see netbooks do the same, it's just a matter of refinement and how the market will dictate it's direction.

[sniki333]

key word people..... "NETBOOK" ....this machine is designed for the internet and maybe using MS Office or small simple programs..THAT'S IT....if your a Journalist, this is prob. a perfect set-up only lag you need a spare battery. On the other hand if you need more space hook up your external hard drive, you should have one by now. On a final note i noticed someone mention something about speakers....who in the heck would want to use built in laptop/netbook/notebook speakers???? use headphones or external speakers.

[peoplerstoopid]

How many of you people that are bashing on the netbooks actually own one or have used one extensively? I certainly hope it is ALL of you, but something tells me only a select few have. If you have not owned one/used one a lot, please save us all some time and dont post here with your nonsense.

I am typing on one right now as we speak and I love mine. I bought it for school knowing full well that it wouldnt do everything that a normal laptop or desktop would do. I sacrificed the graphics card, disc drive, big screen, etc for the quiet, portable, and good price. I do not regret my decision whatsoever.

I just have one more question.

Did you purchase a small, inexpensive netbook expecting to get something much more? I just dont understand what everyones complaints are...if you want something for gaming, graphics editing, etc. then go buy an expensive computer and be done with it and dont post here. If you want a cheap, reliable computer that is extremely portable that you can browse the web on, do homework, IM, outlook, office, etc etc then IMO buy a netbook. Just please understand that if you buy a netbook expecting a laptop then of course you will be dissapointed.

Netbook $300 ish dollars.
Laptop $500+

I saved $200+ by purchasing a netbook for school/work instead of a laptop that I wouldnt use all the features on. I win.

Cmon people! Jeesh...this is easy stuff here. You get what you pay for. Simple as that.