Netbooks could potentially kill off the laptop
By Mike Ferro
Netbooks have been gaining in popularity recently. Many consumers have come around to using a netbook over the traditional laptop for economical reasons. It seems like there is a strong indication that laptops may die out if the current trend continues.
I recently joined the ranks of many consumers ditching their traditional laptops in favor of netbooks. I looked at my laptop usage and realized that I really did not need a $1,000 laptop for my Web browsing and document reading. I really don’t even know why I purchased a laptop with a nice video card when I don’t even play video games on it. I pretty much use my beefy desktop PC to play graphically intensive games.
According to Cnet news, DisplaySearch’s Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report for the first quarter of 2009 indicate that netbooks are on the rise. The research firm says that netbooks are on track to grow as much as 65 percent by the end of 2009. Also the firm says that traditional laptops will only grow by only three percent.
The research firm is attributing the growth of netbooks to the state of the economy, but I believe its more than that. Consumers are slowly realizing their laptop usage habits and are making a self conscious decision to go for the practical netbook. If you ask anyone that owns a netbook as to why they decided to get one the answer will almost always be the same. They will tell you that they did not need all the bells and whistles that come with traditional laptops.
If you really get down to it, what do traditional laptops have over netbooks? The thing that comes to mind is the beefier specs and graphics card which is great for playing video games but that really doesn’t do much for running Microsoft Word.
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April 13th, 2009
There’s a reason laptop sales have passed desktops. Most people can do what they need with a laptop.
Most people have a netbook as a secondary for a reason. Tiny screens and keyboards and puny CPUs built for battery run time. I have a HTPC that doubles as a media server. Otherwise, it’s a 17″ laptop I leave the battery pulled and have hauled around the US and Europe in a wheeled bag since ‘05.
Most other people are similarly blowing off desktops. But I doubt you will see netbooks replace them. Nice secondary, light and cheap. I’ve wondered why people who spend $399 on a netbook don’t just get a 15″ laptop for $50 bucks more.