richardsona@Chris: You are exactly right, though I didn't go into the timing/longevity issue in the deck. No-one really knows if Netbooks are here to stay, or if they are just a temporary solution until laptops can get cheap enough, light enough and with good enough battery life, or whether smartphones will be able to grow up enough to make Netbooks redundant (no-one really wants to carry a smartphone *and* a Netbook after all).
I used to use a Psion 7 PDA, which I still think is one of the best devices I've ever had. It was a proto Netbook. But once I got a Mac laptop that was also instant on/off, it was just redundant to carry around both.
@David: I think there's room for specific OSes, but the niches are reducing. I focused in this deck only on those that are doing cross-platform offerings.3 years ago
Are you sure you want to
chrisbernardNice concise analysis. I wonder however if Netbooks as a category are really here to stay. I think they are a category (Like a Yugo) that is borne more out of price than traditional user needs. If traditional laptops can encroach in the pricing territory--and they already are, I wonder if the whole category goes away, or gets replaced by a new type of device that we haven't seen yet.
It's easy to ignore how much the price of PCs have fallen. We've all seen the data about how Apple owns the higher end of the market but what's lost in that analysis is that many computers that might have competed in that high end a year ago price wise no longer do. ThinkPad and Precision and Latitude lines in the world of PCs used to typically be north of $1.5 or even $2k are now priced in base configurations well below 1k. I won't comment on the financial implications that this has for OEMs but it's hard for me to see how many consumers will opts for a three pound netbook when they can get a 4 or 5 pound laptop at more or less the same pricepoint.
The key driver for any platforms long success long term is who develops for it and how easy it is to develop for--which in our current or near future world means how easy is it to ultimately develop for one or two platforms at the same time using the same set of skills and assets. The other actors that have weight here are Nokia and RIM and perhap Palm3 years ago
Are you sure you want to
David Malouf, Professor at Savannah College of Art & Designthanx for this perspective. I'd like to throw another out there. The BeOS model. Be specific. Don't create a generic OS, but create a generic kernel that layers on top of it specific need interfaces: * focus on thin/web * focus on game * focus on entertainment * focus on social
Find 1 that marries all of these, well enough.
http://iact.in for 2 GUI perspectives on NetBook GUIs done by students at SCAD with the support of Freescale semiconductor (a Netbook chip manufacturer).3 years ago
jjang_zhj
I used to use a Psion 7 PDA, which I still think is one of the best devices I've ever had. It was a proto Netbook. But once I got a Mac laptop that was also instant on/off, it was just redundant to carry around both.
@David: I think there's room for specific OSes, but the niches are reducing. I focused in this deck only on those that are doing cross-platform offerings. 3 years ago
It's easy to ignore how much the price of PCs have fallen. We've all seen the data about how Apple owns the higher end of the market but what's lost in that analysis is that many computers that might have competed in that high end a year ago price wise no longer do. ThinkPad and Precision and Latitude lines in the world of PCs used to typically be north of $1.5 or even $2k are now priced in base configurations well below 1k. I won't comment on the financial implications that this has for OEMs but it's hard for me to see how many consumers will opts for a three pound netbook when they can get a 4 or 5 pound laptop at more or less the same pricepoint.
The key driver for any platforms long success long term is who develops for it and how easy it is to develop for--which in our current or near future world means how easy is it to ultimately develop for one or two platforms at the same time using the same set of skills and assets. The other actors that have weight here are Nokia and RIM and perhap Palm 3 years ago
* focus on thin/web
* focus on game
* focus on entertainment
* focus on social
Find 1 that marries all of these, well enough.
http://iact.in for 2 GUI perspectives on NetBook GUIs done by students at SCAD with the support of Freescale semiconductor (a Netbook chip manufacturer). 3 years ago