Netbooks Strike Fear Into Hearts of PC Makers
The success of ASUS’ Eee PC has led to a massive push by come PC makers to come out with their own versions of the low-powered low-profile “netbook” computers. Now with big names Dell, HP, and Acer getting in on the netbook fad, PC manufacturers are coming to the sober realization that less is not more when it comes to the bottom line.
The margins on these small computers are so thin that it’s hard to generate a good deal of profit on them. Much of the appeal for the Eee PC wasn’t it’s small size, but its minuscule price, starting at $299.
Some PC makers aren’t even going to dive in. “We’re sitting on the sidelines not because we’re lazy. We’re sitting on the sidelines because even if this category takes off, and we get our piece of the pie, it doesn’t add up,” said Paul Moore, senior director of mobile product management for Fujitsu. “It’s a product that essentially has no margin.”
As cloud computing gets off the ground, the netbook trend will only snowball in the next few years. As it stands now, for simply surfing the net and checking email, netbooks are already great to have. The solid-state drives boot quickly, the keyboards really aren’t that difficult to deal with (in my opinion, I have an Eee PC), and low-profile operating systems run great on them. While many are choosing to go with Linux on their netbooks, I’ve found that a XP can whittled down to a 1GB install that is lightning fast and super-stable on my netbook.
But these netbooks could be Linux’s big chance to shine. As cloud computing takes over, operating systems become less important, and a simple, free, no-nonsense OS will be in demand on netbooks, especially with the profit margins so fine. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft and Apple adjust to this.
Story and quotes via Matt Richtel of the New York Times.
Technorati Tags: eee pc, netbooks, linux
