Loading ...Vodka and water. They look the same, but taste different (or so they tell me).
Similarly, netbooks may look like notebooks, but ― as we’ve previously pointed out ― they’re not the same.
NPD released a survey last week finding that 60% of consumers who purchased a netbook thought it would have the same performance as a notebook. Additionally, out of the 18-24 year old demographic – a major segment for netbooks – an astounding 65% said they bought their netbooks expecting better performance.
It’s no wonder that some netbook resellers saw a 30% return rate, as reported by Brooke Crothers at CNET.
Clearly, there is confusion in the market over the functionality of a netbook. And I don’t blame the consumer.
So what do we do? BusinessWeek’s Olga Kharif wrote a call to action for PC makers and retailers to better explain the difference in netbooks’ and notebooks’ capabilities. Speaking from personal experience, she writes, “I loved using [my netbook] to quickly check Hotmail or to watch a video off of YouTube. But try multitasking, such as downloading a photo or a document while streaming a video off of YouTube, and their performance falls off the cliff. Consumers need to be made aware of this before they make their purchases.”
In some cases, consumers may even encounter problems during normal Web surfing. Many Websites now have video or flash right on their homepage. If you’re a parent buying a netbook for your kid, try loading Disney.com.
As with battery life, we think the PC industry has a role in helping consumers make educated decisions. In fact, Best Buy calls out on their Website that, “Netbooks may look like laptops, but they don’t have the full capabilities of a computer.”
What I also find interesting about the NPD survey is that the percentage of consumers who bought a netbook expecting the performance of a notebook closely parallels the percentage of netbooks that never leave the home (60% according to NPD). To me, this signifies that there is an opportunity in the market for a higher-performance product that is inexpensive and lightweight, satisfying consumers’ desire for a small, powerful machine while not disappointing on performance.
Of course, AMD’s response is the “ultrathin” category. If you’re looking for a lightweight, sleek laptop that is still powerful enough to handle your day to day activities, we recommend you check out the HP Pavilion dv2, powered by the AMD Athlon™ Neo processor for ultrathin notebooks.
Nigel Dessau is senior vice president and chief marketing officer at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.
(4.69 out of 5)
#1 by Toby Hudon - July 1st, 2009 at 11:39
Netbooks completely lost their way the moment the hard drives appeared. The core idea was to have only the essential requirements to get the system up and online so that people who worked mostly on the net could do it cheaper and with longer battery life and carrying less weight.
I’m loathe to blame Windows here, since I vastly prefer it to the alternatives available, but in this case it really is at fault. XP should have been stripped down into 1-2GB install rather than putting in 160GB HDs. But even if that had been done the CPU overhead drove up performance demands. The 7″ screens and keyboards were too small for adults, and with size bumps came easy room to cram higher performing parts.
So the whole thing fell apart on itself. Marketing not having a clear vision of what to promote it as didn’t really help either.
So now the question is, do we kill this mistake and re-invent the “netbook”? Or do we just give up on the low cost low performance niche of the market?
Personally I think cellphones are going to come up into this area from below, and their aggressive pricing subsidies will make it too hard for PC-based hardware to compete with them. The only thing holding them back is lack of formfactor innovation (ask Pat Moorhead about my ideas here) and greedy providers charging outrageous rates for data.
#2 by Sean Gordon - July 8th, 2009 at 12:53
As Toby Hudon aboves says, they have changed a lot from when they first came into the main market. Now they’re getting hard drives (and farily alrge ones at that), and i’m sure i’ve even seen one or two with dual core, or plans for one at least…
Now that is just going too far. That’s straying into low-end laptop territory. The whole point of them was a simple, cheap, portable computer that can be used to work on the web (hence the oh=so=crappy=and=overused-marketing-bull****-of-a-name NETbook), not to have 10″ screens and be used for streaming video from the internet, while typing a word documents, and messing around on photoshop.
Also, as Toby above said too, Windows XP realyl should have been stripped down. It’s not like it’s an impossible task. I’ve even seen similar versions to what is really required made by non-microsoftians, who’ve got rid of everything that isn’t needed and cut it down to 700MB-2GB.
I say, go back to hassive a proper divide between “netbooks” and laptops…
#3 by asH - July 15th, 2009 at 20:43
Thin is in.
All paths converge in the thin arena, RISC procesor vs CISC. Apple’s will probably produce the de facto standard with their October presentation of the Apple tablet. Intel’s Atom may not be a worthy competitor; that leaves AMD to defend CISC’s honor….”To the victor belong the spoils” …Llano
#4 by asH - July 17th, 2009 at 19:21
AMD Chases New Form Factors With Low-power Chips
Agam Shah, IDG News Service
….”To the victor belong the spoils”
Neo!!
THATS WHAT I”M TALKIN’ ABOUT!!
let the branding begin!
nice.
#5 by asH - July 20th, 2009 at 05:06
until laptop battery life substantially improve, AMD ‘portable’ nettops maybe an attractive alternative second option, considering their ‘processing advantage’ over laptops….plug one into my car interface on the road akin to the Apple auto interface…possibilities abound with a quality product
asH
#6 by Brad - July 31st, 2009 at 11:12
I have done some research, and determined that the AMD Turion Neo X2 is all the processor that I need. Unfortunately, the only option with it is the DV2z, which although interesting, has several serious design issues (poor battery life, larger and heavier than other 12″ notebooks).
I am looking to buy a computer soon, please tell me that AMD has other Turion Neo X2 Ultraportables coming…otherwise right now i am heavily considering the budget-ultraportables with Intel ULV’s (though i do not yet know how the single core pentium SU2700 will perform).
#7 by Andrew Fox for Nigel - July 31st, 2009 at 14:26
From Nigel: The HP dv2 has had many good reviews and is award winning, and I personally find my dv2 very useful. But not every design is for everyone, and that is why we are pleased we have more than twenty ultra-thin platforms coming to market soon.
#8 by Rambaldi - August 1st, 2009 at 02:52
I believe there was one from BenQ but I don’t know the details of that sorry.
#9 by Brad - August 3rd, 2009 at 09:26
I checked out these other ultraportables with the Intel SU3500 (core 2 solo 1.4ghz) and T2700 (pentium single core 1.3 ghz)…the processors are actually fairly weak i think. The are only somewhat better than an atom, but i am fairly certain they still cannot handleHD flash video for example. In fact, on at least one benchmarking site the single core athlon neo bested the SU3500!!! Anyway, I think the DV2 may be a good computer for me after all, but i’ll wait and see if any other Turion Neo computers are announced.
Thanks, it is a great processor!
#10 by Dawood - September 4th, 2009 at 06:05
Of course, recent trends have considerably diminished the difference between these 2 gadgets, but anyway there are still points to consider before purchasing one or another. Below I’ve tried to list them all:
http://www.myhowtoos.com/en/how-to-choose/87-how-to-choose-between-netbook-vs-laptop
#11 by Michael - October 12th, 2009 at 01:33
Nigel!
I happened upon this article searching for an AMD-based netbook as well as “The Future of Mainstream Notebook PCs”.
I admit, I’ve been an AMD fanboy for some time now, dating back to the K6-2 (High School). I even have some stock in AMD. But it really upsets me that you take such a negative stance toward netbooks, and such a positive stance on ONE product: HP’s DV2.
For instance, the MSI Wind U210 is the freshest and most cost-effective “netbook” that I’ve seen in a while. And its been getting great reviews.
Sure netbooks don’t have the full capabilities of a noteback… but wasn’t it just a few years ago when the laptop segment was divided between notebooks and DTRs?
AMD shouldn’t close the door on netbooks so fast… Netbooks integrated with wireless via phone companies – providing an “always on” device (Nokia’s Netbook for instance) will gain in popularity. AMD is really shooting itself in the foot for not expanding into the market more.