Netbooks to be nothing but an awkward piece of history by 2015

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104
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Only a few years ago, netbooks were the hot go-to companion device for folks who wanted something between a smartphone and a full-fledged notebook. Although they sacrificed high performance and full functionality, netbooks offered an extremely affordable and portable package that was still competent enough for a light productivity session. Their price and size also made them an attractive solution for kids.

With a heavy backing by most PC manufacturers, especially Acer and Asus, it seemed like every day brought the launch of a new Atom-powered mini-laptop during the form factor's climax, at which point it had become the day's fastest growing PC segment. Since then, the rise of tablets and Intel's ultrabook initiative have largely killed netbooks as we knew them, and the final nail in the coffin will soon be hammered.

In 2010 -- the year the iPad arrived -- vendors shipped more than 32 million netbooks, according to IHS iSuppli. Two years later, that figure fell to 14.1 million and it's expected to slip just below four million units this year. By 2014, iSuppli predicts that system builders will only move about 264,000 netbooks and that paltry sum will evaporate entirely by the following year, marking the netbook's ultimate conclusion.

Companies including Samsung, Dell and Toshiba have long exited the market in pursuit of higher-margin categories, while Acer and Asus are expected to follow suit and halt netbook production with no new designs planned for 2013, according to a report by DigiTimes earlier this year. Considering those two are out of the game, you could say the netbook is already dead, it just won't be official until supplies run dry.

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Netbooks are still good for people who need to work with a keyboard, though some tablets already offer external keyboards aswell so it's really not the best option anymore.
 
I feel that Microsoft's Surface PRO is on the right track regarding this, but the industry as a whole *really* needs to offer greater support for peripheral connectivity & attachments to tablets. Bluetooth and USB should become required connection options on every single tablet device, and every OS should support them (be it Android, Windows 8, or iOS). That way I can use whatever device I have to sync my phone, connect a wireless keyboard, and potentially plug in a USB joystick.

The fact that I *can't* do this on anything but a Microsoft tablet today is simply ridiculous!
 
I have two Acer netbooks, an ao722 and an ao725. Both were less than $250, received dozens of 5-star reviews at Amazon and beat both ultras and tablets in almost every category, hands down. No, they don't leave a trail of smoke in their wake, but for production computing, for travel computing and just tending to the matters at hand, they are amazing little computers.
 
I'm not a fan of touch screen, always seems to miss the mark and generally takes long to do things. If they believe netbooks are done for because everyone will switch over to tablets, I'm not too sure about that. Tablets have there place but to sit there and hold the thing or lay it flat down while your trying to work sounds uncomfortable. I believe there will always be a good market for cheap laptops, however, "they" hp, dell, etc...prob want to get rid of them and instead put $600+ tablets, now there making a lot more money, u see what they did there?
 
I'm not a fan of touch screen, always seems to miss the mark and generally takes long to do things. If they believe netbooks are done for because everyone will switch over to tablets, I'm not too sure about that. Tablets have there place but to sit there and hold the thing or lay it flat down while your trying to work sounds uncomfortable. I believe there will always be a good market for cheap laptops, however, "they" hp, dell, etc...prob want to get rid of them and instead put $600+ tablets, now there making a lot more money

I used to have a netbook (ASUS eee PC. it got dropped and broke), but it was a great little computer. 9 hours of battery on the thing and you could let it sit on the arm of the couch instead of having to hold it up. No, it didn't have a touchscreen, and it was kinda slow, but it worked great for surfing the internet. It was much easier than using a tablet and cost like $300. Back when I had it people had asked me what it was and were interested in it. It was nice for people (like my mother in law) who were intimidated by tablets.

I think MS saw the gap in the market when netbooks were getting phased out. Yes, tablets are a more lucrative market for the sellers and tablets are 'cooler', so I understand why they're disappearing. The kickstand and keyboard might seem like old boring technology, but they're pretty darn useful too.
 
Still an avid fan of netbooks,I sure hope it doesn't run out of production. As many alike I hate tablets.. period. I still prefer a keyboard and a screen separately. No matter what industry or market says,I am getting one this june. I want one for my travels which is cheap,comfortable,very portable(small screen size; the major factor here) and robust enough.
 
That's a shame, because tablets don't at all fill the niche netbooks filled. My netbook has a much larger HD than any tablet, stands on its own, and has a keyboard. Not quite as portable as a tablet, nor as good for consuming media, but that's the point: they fill different niches.
 
I own an ACER ASPIRE ONE and ASUS Eee PC both netbook models. ACER no issues since 2009 paid one deal price on Amazon $229 free shipping no tax and the ASUS Eee has been sent back to ASUS for repairs. Issue was the LCD/LED panel was defective. Getting ASUS to repair it was the hardness part. But they did. FedEx it back to them and they FedEx it back to me in 1 week turn around time. So I use the ACER one more max out the RAM to 2GB on both and also ditched XP Home for Windows 7 U-32-bit.

ACER one makes a good programming tool for what I do with Android ROM. So no the Netbook shouldn't go away yet they can do a lot where the full laptop would do. I own laptops from ACER / Gateway again no issues with those either.

Tablets are here to stay, you can now mount them as a replacement to your car Navi/MP3 player a lot of people are using them in their F150 etc..
 
I also have a netbook that I paid around $250 for, it has a 320 gig hd, and an 8 cell battery. I get great battery life in Win 7 starter. Yes it is slow, but it will play flash video and get around the internet alright. I've used it a lot for data entry in my lab as well as taking it on the road when I didn't need a powerhouse. I think there would still be a viable market for them if they would have been upgraded over the years by the manufacturers, but the manufacturers didn't want to do that when they knew Microsoft wasn't going to support them with Windows 8.
 
I have two Acer netbooks, an ao722 and an ao725. Both were less than $250, received dozens of 5-star reviews at Amazon and beat both ultras and tablets in almost every category, hands down. No, they don't leave a trail of smoke in their wake, but for production computing, for travel computing and just tending to the matters at hand, they are amazing little computers.

I own two of these devices as well. While smart phone's have gotten better and I grab my tablet more often than one of the Netbooks, I'll always bring the netbook when traveling or when I need a keyboard or use office type applications.

The problems with the idea that 'ultrabooks' will replace netbooks is cost, WIN8, battery life and size. I like my little 7" WINXP netbook. Maybe I'll pickup a 'ultrabook' when they shrink the price to $225, shrink the screen size to 10" or less and allow you to get +9hrs of actual work done.
 
No, netbooks shouldn't go away. I don't have one myself but used to borrow my brother's before I had my own notebook and it was fine for what I needed (mostly for programming and mathematical sw). A lot of my colleagues have one and like to program there when they're carrying it around the campus and switch to the notebook when they have a power supply near and don't have to be moving a lot.

Tablets are nice; but as it has been said before, each one fills a different niche.
 
Ha at first I read this as Notebooks/laptops will be dead in less than two years. but okay I see it's those blasted "netbooks" good riddance.

#mornings
 
Netbook will slowly change to net-blet, a tablet powered by same processor as netbook, plus this kind of tablet got a very good battery life. Just add keyboard, and it will turn like netbook but with touch screen.. :)
 
I think netbooks will be just fine.
I gather information from over 800 users here at the Hospital and the only grips people had with Netbooks were the resolution, specs/power and battery life.
You get an i3 netbook with 900p+ resolution, numpad and great battery life and it will sell. Laptops still fly off shelves and people are starting to see the limitations with touchscreen. Plus, having a keyboard taking up 30-50% of the screen is a complete pain in the ***.
 
GMA on Intel used to use 1024x600 glitch can now be corrected under Windows 7 so it displays it as 1024x768 on netbook

To fix the above I just mention go to this link
http://liliputing.com/2010/03/hack-to-increase-the-screen-resolution-on-windows-7-netbooks.html

To increase the default 8MB for Video to 224MB use this link
http://www.virtualsecrets.com/acer-aspire-one-netbook.html

That is an interesting bit of info. Seems like the OS is wrong though, I'm running Win 7 Starter on my netbook, but Win 8 has severe problems because of the screen resolution. I'm pretty sure that is the exact same way you 'fix' it in Windows 8, but what seems odd to me is I never knew 7 had this issue. Certainly 7 Starter doesn't since that is what shipped with my netbook, and I'm at 1024x600.
 
That is an interesting bit of info. Seems like the OS is wrong though, I'm running Win 7 Starter on my netbook, but Win 8 has severe problems because of the screen resolution. I'm pretty sure that is the exact same way you 'fix' it in Windows 8, but what seems odd to me is I never knew 7 had this issue. Certainly 7 Starter doesn't since that is what shipped with my netbook, and I'm at 1024x600.


Well I had installed Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit on both my netbooks, but the VIS was 1024x600. Ran the Intel GMA Update and fixed my issue. But if you run the most current one it reverts the netbook back to 1024x600. So I have Windows Update forced not to install that update. I had installed Windows 8 pro preview edition on the Asus Eee PC works great until that version no longer operates.

But it worked with this Intel GMA VIS correction. You got the next netbook both of mine came with Windows XP Home Edition and that was late 2009. Well both are at 1024x768 right now works for me!
 
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