Acer sees poor sales of 11.6-inch netbooks

[Justin]

Is Acer still planning on being crowned king of netbooks this year? They might be facing a small setback in achieving that goal, following news that sales of their larger 11.6” Aspire One netbooks aren't doing as well as they'd have hoped. In particular, the Aspire One AO751h netbook has had “unsatisfactory” sales, causing Acer to react by reducing the number of units they are ordering to Quanta Computer.

The reasoning cited is customer preference for 10” models. It seems a bit confusing, as many in the industry predict the larger units will ultimately win out – that was part of the justification behind Acer’s decision to drop the 8.9” model. Does this indicate a preference for a smaller 10-inch netbooks, or that people don't want to pay the higher price for a larger unit? Maybe bigger is better, but there may be a limit to how far that goes. We'll know for sure as prices for netbooks continue to drop, and find out if it is price or size that truly matter most. My bet is on price – what's your take?

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https://www.techspot.com/news/34931-acer-sees-poor-sales-of-116-inch-netbooks.html

 

[OneArmedScissor]

I think it might have something to do with the fact that the 11.6" model is not listed on Newegg, Best Buy, or all of Amazon and Yahoo shopping combined.

I did find one on Google shopping - an Ebay link, for $600...lol

 

[SNGX1275]

To me this is sort of a "no sh** sherlock" type thing. 11.2" is getting fairly large, yet they still have crap resolution and a poor performing processor (outside of power consumption), not to mention the increased weight from the larger size.

 

[Guest]

How do they expect to sell something without actually bringing it to market first? Acers own web site says that it's not yet available online, and after using the sites search engine to find stores in my area, none of them have it either. My local Wal-Mart says they were supposed to have had some by now, but still haven't recieved any. They don't even have a display model yet, just an empty slot with price and specs. WTF?

 

[SNGX1275]

That is also true dude above me, I googled for them, and I found a ton of links about how nobody has them.

 

[Captain828]

Yeah, what gives? I can't find any either.

Anyway, I guess it's about price, cus @ $600... what the hell are you getting??
A slightly bigger screen and keyboard, yet the same crappy performance.

Also, for $600 you can get a notebook, which kinda beats any netbook in terms of performance.

 

[NunjaBusiness]

Why would anyone spend $600 on this and a 12" notebook is about the same price with a WORLD of difference, usability-wise. Acer really missed the boat on this one.

 

[Guest]

What are you guys talking about? The MSRP for the AO751H is $349.00-$379.00 depending on configuration.

 

[Guest]

The problem is 2 fold.

First, you can't find them anywhere. Acer's own United States website didn't even have the model posted until a week after the announcement that they were supposedly available. And I still have yet to find one on a major retailer's site, even in out of stock status.

Second, the 751h is going to perform worse than the 10" models because they only have a 1.33 ghz proc. From what I understand this isn't Acer's fault though. Intel won't let their most powerful Atom chips be put in anything with a screen larger than 10". The artificial bottle necks put on netbooks by parts and software manufacturers is what is stifling the 11" netbook, and until these are lifted the 11" netbook is doomed to fail.

 

[viperpfl]

I was going to get a netbook to replace my Dell Axim. The size was just right at 8.9" or even 10". Once they started making the netbook bigger, what was the sense? The whole purpose of the netbook was so that you don't have to carry around something bulky. You can all the basics done without having to lug around a full sized notebook.

 

[Guest]

I got that and extremely happy with it. It depends what you need at all.

- I was looking for a screen wide enough, not to force me to maximize the browser to go fullscreen every time I want to browse for something.

- I'm an editor and looking for a machine that keyboard is not cramped, even full sized if possible.

- I was looking for a machine to entertain me in long flights, capable of at least 720p.

- And I wanted all of them ona a machine not exceeding 500$, 1.3 kg and A4 footprint.

Those were all my requirements. No more, no less...
This was the first machine that provided them all in a single pack.

So can anyone tell me that in which part of the world, I can buy all of those requirements together in one machine?

People will argue. I also did, when I was in launch event in Amsterdam.

Eventually, I think these class will have its own perception. Even netbook concept has been mostly considered "pointless" when it came to the stage at the first time.

If I give $500, I end up with something bulky.
If I give $2000, maybe I can get something called superportable that size is "comparable" and performance "much better".

 

[FoReWoRd]

netbooks are a waste of time

 

[Guest]

I am not surprised it is not selling - it does not appear to be readily available. I have called every walmart within driving distance and they have been out of stock for 3 weeks. If Acer does not fix the availability issue, ASUS may beat them to the market with their 11.6 inch PC, which is suppose to be out end of this month?

 

[Guest]

I want one. I've been waiting for a month for them to come out in the US (Supposedly in MAY!). I have yet to see one available online or in the stores (aside from a single shady Ebay seller with TWO available).

What the heck? If people see one of these things in Best Buy or at Walmart or Target, and see it only costs $350, it will sell!

NOTE TO ACER: Try selling the thing first before declaring it a failure. If it didn't sell well in Europe, it's probably because they seem to be selling it at 400+ Euros, which is way too high. Make it closer to the US Price and it will sell.