Intel exec speaks the obvious: first-time buyers aren't going for netbooks
By Ross Miller 
posted July 29th 2009 6:12PM
posted July 29th 2009 6:12PM
posted July 29th 2009 6:12PM
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I guess i dont want the real deal.? dont have a laptop, buying a netbook straight up. Have a nice desktop though
I would have thought this was the most obvious answer. Netbooks are good for everyone you don't have to spent a lot and still have a "laptop" for the odd occasion you do need it. The only reason you would have a laptop and a netbook is if you pretty much use your laptop as your desktop (it does not move) and need something to carry around.
I think there are a number of people that may be the same as you. I think a more realistic situation is that first-time *computer* buyers will not buy a netbook. I could see people who put a lot of money in a desktop buy a netbook just for the portability, but don't need lots of portable on the go.
Intel isn't stupid. They're not making much money from selling those crappy Atom chips. They know what the real deal is and it's not sold for $300. People need to be getting back to Core 2 Duos and Quad Core processors. Atom means atom-sized profits for Intel.
Netbooks are bottom fill and yes, if you have got a couple of other computers in the house, just fine. But saying that the major base of mobile laptop users is going to go for netbooks is insane.
yeah so we should buy according to the companies interest. that just so genius. i mean the world would be a much better place if that happened
Says the guy who is a fanboy of a company who doesn't make a netbook.
I just got my netbook last week and already I am using it way more than my MacBook or my 17" Dell; both of which are far more powerful than my netbook.
The best laptop is the one you have with you.
what the heck do u need dual and quad cores processors for anyway? nobody i know does nuclear simulations or CAD.
if all people do is check email, write a doc, watch youtube, listen to mp3....then anything with 1ghz and 2gb ram is more than enough.
@Darkstar
I completely agree. So many people own expensive laptops that they use to just surf the internet and listen to music. I am able to edit photos (not to a photoshop extent, but how many people use photoshop properly anyways), listen to music, and even edit tracks with my netbook. I am not saying it is for everyone, however I always wondered what the majority of people really use their computer for.
Well then, throw in a "free" netbook when you purchase a new notebook.
or desktop, which what I would like right now. Already got a C2D laptop for college that only occasionally leaves my house
Is this Intel guy a moron. Many people I know are buying netbooks and don't have a laptop. They do have a desktop. For the price of under $400 to get a great small form computer is a great thing.
Dumbest quote I have heard in a while.
"The first time you buy something, you want the real deal" - What is a netbook , a fake laptop. A netbook can almost do everything the average user does. Every laptop will take a 12 year old to facebook.
let's just list what a netbook won't do.
1. 3D game (plays casual stuff fine)
2. edit video/audio
3. HD, though that's changing with Ion
basically, there's no reason why the average computer illiterate non-gamer should spend more than 400 dollars. A 10 or 11 inch netbook would be perfect for them.
I love it when nobodies dispute people who are in a position to know what they are talking about.
1. solitaire
2. niche market
3. YouTube HD is an option, not a default
@steve. thats two sides of the story. there are lot of people whom i knw buy atom based nettops because they do almost everything buyers are looking for.and @ch has a point in saying not many buyers have a laptop. but these sales arent big enough for intel to justify that product line. :).
A netbook just doesn't satisfy like a mid ranged notebook does. Netbooks are small and portable, but without any real power I couldn't justify buying one. They don't even do well to running the newest Office 2007 and Firefox.
@Will,
There are many limitations to a netbook, however running word and firefox is not one of them. Considering I used (no longer in college) Office 2007(including excel simulations) all the time along with firefox, without any noticeable lag, I am going to say they run just fine. I would not recommend them for gaming, however if all your are doing is mail, office, and other small time tasks, a netbook is just fine.
1. 3D game (plays casual stuff fine)
2. edit video/audio
3. HD, though that's changing with Ion
basically, there's no reason why the average computer illiterate non-gamer should spend more than 400 dollars. A 10 or 11 inch netbook would be perfect for them.
it's also the list of things a $500 or $600 "intel integrated" full size notebooks don't do either. Even the $1299 White Macbook with C2D was useless for those functions until this January's Nvidia GPU update. So the question is do I spend $350 on a crippled small computer or $799? Intel really screwed the pooch with integrated graphics, beating up OEMS, and stepping on Nvidia because the majority of people buy laptops now and Intel Integrated sucks compared to a similar priced desktop PC you can put any $50 3D card in.
@lawyer bird
Strictly speaking many 3D games will work on Netbooks. Not anything with relatively modern requirements. But the Atom seems to handle older titles like Half Life and WarCraft 3, and even some MMOs fine.
The first company to release a CULV laptop with a discrete graphics card in Canada will get my business. You are so close Acer. You can do it, I believe in you.
Seriously though just release the European Timeline with the ATI graphics into North America.
the first company to release a CULV + 9400M (ION) gets my business. seeing that the ION platform can pump out COD4, i'm happy with that.
i'm not planning to do any intense gaming on an ultra-portable, that's what desktops are for.
No.
hell no.
I bought a netbook without having a notebook , it fit my needs, but I also had a desktop I built already
Go figures. My first and only laptop so far is a Netbook.
I'm gonna have to say i totally disagree with the intel exec. With the way the economy has been I imagine that a lot of people will be more than satisfied with only a netbook. The majority of people I know do 2 things on a computer, surf the web and use Microsoft office, both of which a netbook is capable of.
I wouldn't be surprised if the market for netbooks jumped a bit right before this school season starts.
This intel exec also needs to be aware that not all people that buy computers are trying to become PC wizards. Some people get the netbook because of the price and price alone, they may not even know what "ram" is but they do know that w/e it is, the netbook model will ALWAYS be cheaper than the full scale laptop or desktop model
Also most of the girls that commented on my Netbook said it was "Cute".... yeah!
Careful, that could be a veiled insult. Most of the girls who think I'm cute wont have sex with me.
Intel has one crucial thing wrong about netbooks: they think netbook users don't WANT computing power, and have no interest in good games/HD video. Or at least they say that, perhaps because Intel can't provide the graphics. The truth is that netbook users want their netbooks to do everything. They'll PUT UP with less power, to get the form factor, but it's not the same as saying they DON'T WANT it. And Intel is stupid and deceptive for saying otherwise--if they had bothered to make a good graphics chipset in the last 10 years instead of just riding 945G into the dirt like lazy monopolists, they'd be all about "netbooks are awesome, look at these graphics!"
But a whole lot of people are dead wrong on something else: people don't pick netbooks because they're cheaper. They pick netbooks because of form factor/size/weight/portability, etc. They BUY netbooks because of price, instead of just WISHING they could buy one, but they made the choice before they counted their money.
That's an incredibly important distinction, and not enough companies seem to understand it. People aren't choosing netbooks because it's all they can afford. They're choosing them because they want them, and they find out they CAN afford them.
Err....I think price is a major factor here and to believe that is not a primary reason is naive.
If price wasn't a factor then people would buy the Sony Viao TZ series laptops - Netbook form with more power and looks nicer.
A lot of people with netbook will typically have another more powerful machine - more than likely and desktop.
Intel have seen how the market is going with netbooks and they want peoples mindsets to be the a netbook should never be just enough for your needs. At the currently price of netbooks they can't afford for them to be powerful enough to meet all your needs.
He's correct in stating that humans want the real thing. Netbooks are compromised computers. The limitations are obvious; slow hard drives, small screens, small keyboards and lacking computing power. I own a 17 inch laptop and a 10 inch netbook and never use the netbook in my home, only outside. Even my mother who is computer illiterate is not a fan of my netbook and has proclaimed it as too small.
On the other hand it full fills the purpose of being portable which is why I bought it as I wanted a second computer for just that. The reason why the Intel exec said that most netbook buyers already own a laptop is because laptop have overtaken desktops in sales. Though that doesn't mean that everyone has a laptop off course as some own desktops, so there is no need to take that literally.
Of course things like using a digital TV tuner, or decoding HD video are beyond its capabilities. And at the end of the day a 10" screen is not something you'd want to spend a lot of time interacting with. Still for most things a netbook is surprisingly capable, especially when you upgrade the hard drive to a 7200rpm model or, better yet, a nice SSD.
The first netbook with, Ion, bluetooth, GPS, EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA/etc broadband, and a multi-touch screen for under $500 wins.
Such a netbook would fulfill my needs completely. Oh yeah, it would also be nice if it lasted for a couple hours, say about 10. Even if it's only in power save mode 10 hour battery life with all of that would be amazing!
It would probably need an SSD though. Okay, so how about under $600?
People in Asia are more likely to buy a notebook as their primary computer for use at home, since a desktop takes up too much space and cannot be put away so easily when not in use.
The question should be instead "After you buy a primary computer (desktop or powerful notebook), is your next PC going to be a more mobile notebook or a netbook?"
It depends obviously on how much money you feel you have to spend, the balance of power vs. portability, and how well you can get on with a 10" screen vs. something a little larger.
It's also going to change once 11-13" CULV machines go mainstream.
Anyway, Intel comments are fluff to please investors and shouldn't be taken too seriously.
how not? people who don't realize how not quick the Atoms are see 349.99, and jump
Judging by the responses to this article I can see that most people don't understand the whole philosophy behind netbook computing.
What do most people spend most of their time doing on a laptop? I'd say browsing the internet with word processing and media viewing coming next. Netbooks are able to do these things quit adequately. With my mobile internet stick I can browse the internet in a car or the bus much more comfortably than with my my full size laptop and I can browse and work in the dusty office of the gravel pit that I work at where I wouldn't want my other $1500+ laptops anywhere near.
Netbooks are not inferior computers they are small computers with a much narrower focus. How much use is your $2000 super fast computer if you don't have it with you? If I ever replace my netbook with something else it wont be a regular laptop it will be a smart phone.
the cold realization Intel is coming to is that the majority of their market doesn't need expensive computers anymore. Heck, the vanilla Acer Aspire One is more horsepower than the majority of laptops and desktops my company owned just one year ago. Like another poster said, they lack 3D, they lack HD video, and video editing/ performance computing... but my boss don't WANT that stuff at work so it's a feature. They run MS Office like gangbusters and they use a fraction of the power. It was a good move to put Linux on them as "internet books", but intel let Microsoft "knife their baby" again. I'd be curious to see how many businesses are picking up the Asus Eee box rather than buying full size desktops.
unfortunately I know a lot of people that are going to college and so forth and need a laptop and end up buying netbooks because they can't afford anything else. one of my friends picked up a dell mini 9 for $250 usd new and is now suffering with it trying to use it at college. I live in a poorer area and in my area almost everyone has netbooks just because they need a really cheap laptop. Also everyone that I know that has one hates it because they are not powerful enough for what they are trying to do(I don't blame the netbooks for that) I had a friend who went to a community collage for CAD software and boy was he pissed when he tried to run CAD software on a netbook ( even though I told him it wouldn't run he didn't have a budget at all and so he got a netbook.
That's too bad, It would probably have been more interesting to check out the really cheap real laptops (400$) which are quite more powerfull.
Or second hand maybe..
OK - I have multiple powerhouse workstations and an older 17" laptop that I retired. My Acer Netbook is my both my clerical/surfing tool and toy. I CAN watch down-converted HD just fine and show my demo to many prospective clients. When I'm in meetings, my clients are always Ohhhing and Ahhing its compactness and usability (and running Win7 doesn't hurt either). When I tell them it's ~$350 they always look startled and some have then run out and purchased one. The Netbook proves that we don't all need dual/Quad/threaded-to-hell portable systems for the majority of the communications we do.
But all that said, they do have their shortcomings and I agree that it's near impossible to do production work on one. This is my dream Netbook: 2.0 GHz dualCore w/ HD hardware decode, 4GB RAM, 11" HD OLED screen (1280x800~1440x900), WiFi w/ Cel Broadband at $40/mo, and a rear-lit keyboard. Oh yeah, a track pad & buttons that don't suck. If I had all this for say $500~600 I'd be typing this comment on it now.
the developed world still has "first-time" computer buyers?
"developed world"? You needa look around more..
Is there any such thing as a first-time buyer anymore?
CAD on a Netbook come on. Seriously.
No one on a netbook is running 3D games or editing video.
The normal computer user goes to Facebook, checks their email, chats on Skype or AIM, and does photos. How can a netbook not do these things.
Seriously Will, what netbook do you have that cannot run Firefox and Office. I got the Aspire One 10" and it runs those programs daily fine.
"They don't even do well to running the newest Office 2007 and Firefox."
And Steve has the right idea. "If I ever replace my netbook with something else it wont be a regular laptop it will be a smart phone."
A blackberry and netbook makes a mobile office just a good as the home one.