http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/ Engadget Comments for Toshiba goes small with 12.1-inch dynabook SS S30 http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/Aug 24th 2006 2:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/Aug 24th 2006 3:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/Aug 24th 2006 3:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/Aug 24th 2006 3:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/Aug 24th 2006 4:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/
Sorry, I don't buy it.

You take the components of a $800 laptop, you cut down the LCD panel size, you cut down the materials used in manufacturing the case, and then you quadruple the price? Screw you, Toshiba.]]>Aug 24th 2006 4:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/
This is hardly unique to Toshiba. Just about every laptop manufacturer that makes ultrathin and ultraportable laptops charges a premium for them. Even on a more mainstream level you can see this. I mean, you take a 1" Asus laptop and you'll find that it is more expensive than a 1.5" Asus laptop with otherwise the same specs. ]]>Aug 24th 2006 5:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/Aug 24th 2006 5:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/
The chips used in these subnotebooks are the exact same chips used in Toshibas other larger, and cheaper, notebooks. They are not paying a premium for their materials because they are expecting a limited market as might be the case with things like Palm devices which use low-clocked processors that are general purpose but not widely used.

The only explanation other than simply "we can charge more so we can" that I can think of would be that the R&D for this model, which would be approximately the same as the R&D on any other model at this point as Toshiba has been doing these subnotebook machines for awhile now, is not expected to be substantially recovered because of a smaller perceived market. Much of that smaller market is due to their exorbitant price, I expect. If they were selling this laptop, specd like a $800 notebook save for its size, for $1000 or $1200, it could be understandable. But $2168 as the base price?

They know their market - hospitals and doctors offices - and apparently just don't care to move into a casual consumer market.]]>Aug 24th 2006 5:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/24/toshiba-goes-small-with-12-1-inch-dynabook-ss-s30/
You need to realize that these are highly specialized devices that require special engineering precisely because they are using some of these same types of chips, optical drives, etc. but cramming them into a much tighter space.

Just as an example, you can get some idea of what the internals of a Sony TR look like here:

http://www.siliconpopculture.com/sonytr/viewtopic.php?t=5486

Just because some of these ultraportables have common components doesn't mean that there also isn't a lot more that inherently makes them more expensive.

They aren't charging more for these things simply because they are a niche product. They charge more because the smaller you make it, the more difficult it is to assemble and get working properly. And there is a lot of specialized hardware here......... not everything in these kinds of laptops is an off-the-shelf part that you'd find in a larger laptop.

Really, by your logic, the Sony UX180p Micro PC should be much cheaper than $1800 because the specs are so low. But of course that isn't true, because the engineering required to cram some of those things into something so small make it a more expensive device. ]]>Aug 24th 2006 6:00PM