Dell Opts Out of Netbooks for Ultrabooks

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Dell is going with the flow in portable computer market by dropping the once popular under-powered web surfing netbook. Sales are falling for the netbook in favor of the more powerful and versatile ultrabook and it looks likely that Dell will be riding the crest of the wave.

Dell’s Marketing Director Alison Garden was also quoted as saying “Thin and Powerful is where it is at for us,” suggesting that Dell would be releasing ultrabooks of their own in the future.
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i thought they were dumping netbooks because tablets took over that sector...
 
^^ i think you will need too, chances are if you don't understand it, then it wasn't for you, i dont undestand why people buy ferrari's when a honda would do just fine...
 
I'll be really really really sad if the entire netbook ecosystem dries up.
 
If they can't sell $300 laptops, why do they think they can sell $1000 laptops?
 
FranklyShankly said:
Small laptops for $300. What's not to get?
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Because I can buy a full laptop that isn't honestly much heavier for $300 that actually can do something other than suck at web browsing.

Good riddance to the most worthless thing to hit computing in years.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Because I can buy a full laptop that isn't honestly much heavier for $300 that actually can do something other than suck at web browsing.

Good riddance to the most worthless thing to hit computing in years.
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Exactly.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Because I can buy a full laptop that isn't honestly much heavier for $300 that actually can do something other than suck at web browsing.

Good riddance to the most worthless thing to hit computing in years.
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And you demonstrate exactly how you don't understand the market. It doesn't cater to what you think is better... it caters to what people think they want. (Word choice is very deliberate, there.)

Why did netbooks sell? Because they were *MORE* portable than existing laptops, could run most apps just fine since people were using something with a screen too small for multitasking, and were less than 1/3rd the price of existing ultra portables like the Sony Picturebook.

The fact that you can buy a laptop now for under $400 wasn't the case when netbooks first hit the market.

You're also ignoring the fact, again, that these netbooks were *MORE* portable than existing laptops. And this is STILL true now.

What followed?

Tablets.

Why are they popular? After all, as you so ignorantly put it... they can't really do much more than suck at web browsing... And ARM based tablets are even more crippled than x86 based netbooks.

Smaller form factor. Ease of carry. Battery life.

All the very things that made netbooks more appealing than full laptops.

The market doesn't give a shit about what you want if you think it's only about performance.

I still have my netbook and it's still pretty indispensable. If I'm working on something, like a build or a repair, I can boot anything up on the netbook, burn a DVDR, clone a disk, quickly download drivers... and I can do it without having to carry much with me.

I can also carry my netbook in my messenger bag and nobody would know I even had one in there. Hell of a lot safer to do that in the city compared with a full sized laptop... especially considering the number of people who tend to buy "HEY LOOK! I HAVE A LAPTOP!" attention calling brands like Targus to carry theirs around.

People who think netbooks always have sucked are the ones who cannot see a Laptop as something other than a disposable desktop substitute.
 
If netbooks had actually been sold as cheap as they had been promised to be they would still be popular.

The problem was that as soon as OEMs realized people would buy netbooks they inflated the price and ended up with products more expensive than slightly heavier but better featured machines.
 
I got the Netbook craze. Folks that wanted to buy what they considered a okay mini-laptop for $300.00 but instead got something they rarely used due to how slow Netbooks with Atom processors were. We must have gotten 50% or more returned due to customers unhappy with the performance of their netbooks. One week out of the 55 we sold, I remember seeing 50 come back, guess it depends on how cranky or performance hungry the customers who bought the netbooks were that particular week. I never understood though how a customer who spent $300.00 on a Netbook expected any semblance of a fast computer.
 
techrat said:
People who think netbooks always have sucked are the ones who cannot see a Laptop as something other than a disposable desktop substitute.
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Wrong. People who think netbooks are good are people who have never used an ultrabook.

As technology moves, the price of ultra books will drop. You can already get a well reviewed Toshiba one with a a 128gb SSD core i5 for $699.

11in ultra books make netbooks pointless. I've used both and my dell mini was a piece of shit compared to my 11in macbook air.
 
computerpro3 said:
11in ultra books make netbooks pointless.
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Unless price or battery life matter. They may not matter to you, but they do matter to quite a few consumers.

Netbooks would have been even better if it weren't for the incompetence of Microsoft and Intel who both wanted to restrict the capabilities of netbooks.
 
I think the sensible move would be to just lower the price of netbooks. I bought my netbook because it was on sale for $150. I'm sure more people would buy netbooks if they were that price.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Because I can buy a full laptop that isn't honestly much heavier for $300 that actually can do something other than suck at web browsing.

Good riddance to the most worthless thing to hit computing in years.
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We have ten laptops, the only ones that actually left the tables were the netbooks. My mom still has the Acer Aspire One (1.6Ghz), and she's using it for pretty much everything. Word processing, photo editing (really, most people just use cut and paste on their pictures), and puzzle games. And when she needs to go out, she disconnects it from the 19" monitor and KB/M and slips it into her purse.

She also has a 15" dual core laptop, certainly a lot more powerful, but it was so rarely used that the battery was ruined, i'm actually wondering if replacing the battery is worth it since it's so rarely used, much less taken out of the house.

There's a difference between portability and mobility.
 
Netbooks are the worst, I'm glad they're going to be phased out (and pretty much already are). A short yet bitterly awful life they had.

Ultrabooks at least have some power to them. Spending $300 on a celeron laptop with 2gb of RAM is just a waste of $300. Within 3 months you'll be wishing you saved an extra $200 and bought something that could do more than word documents.
 
Ohmycaptain said:
Netbooks are the worst, I'm glad they're going to be phased out (and pretty much already are). A short yet bitterly awful life they had.

Ultrabooks at least have some power to them. Spending $300 on a celeron laptop with 2gb of RAM is just a waste of $300. Within 3 months you'll be wishing you saved an extra $200 and bought something that could do more than word documents.
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That only applies to techies. My family and relatives use computers for real office work. I'm pretty much the exception and the only one upgrading his rig. Really, how powerful of a PC do you really need when the most demanding application of your userbase are facebook games?
 
Sly said:
We have ten laptops, the only ones that actually left the tables were the netbooks. My mom still has the Acer Aspire One (1.6Ghz), and she's using it for pretty much everything. Word processing, photo editing (really, most people just use cut and paste on their pictures), and puzzle games. And when she needs to go out, she disconnects it from the 19" monitor and KB/M and slips it into her purse.

She also has a 15" dual core laptop, certainly a lot more powerful, but it was so rarely used that the battery was ruined, i'm actually wondering if replacing the battery is worth it since it's so rarely used, much less taken out of the house.

There's a difference between portability and mobility.
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Bingo.

People on a forum like this are going to learn towards the type to spit on anything that isn't bleeding edge. Then they act all surprised or dismayed that a product actually DOES appeal to a larger market and sell.

My Netbook has many uses and have an edge over larger laptops for reasons I already pointed out. It runs Photoshop fine, I've done remote image editing with it because I had it with me and didn't have to wait until I was home to do it. Sure, it can be done with a laptop, too, but a laptop isn't as convenient to carry around. A 9" netbook versus a 12-14" compact laptop is the difference between carrying it around when I think I might need it... and being able to carry it around regardless.

I sold my 15.4" Dualcore gaming laptop in favor of my Netbook, even. How convenient it is to carry it around definitely adds to the ease of use of it.
 
Sly said:
That only applies to techies. My family and relatives use computers for real office work. I'm pretty much the exception and the only one upgrading his rig. Really, how powerful of a PC do you really need when the most demanding application of your userbase are facebook games?
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Also ultrabooks are no desktop replacement. They can't really do "serious" work or play "serious" games as they lack discrete gaphics. So they are kind of a weak assed normal laptop, for usually pretty expensive in a larger form factor, which makes them not the most powerful, or portable or have the best battery life. Sure they are fine for editing word documents and checking websites and basic gaming, but so are netbooks, which are a fraction of the cost, and lighter, and smaller so much more portable. Being lacking in certain areas you'd think "ultrabooks" would be cheap, but the ones i've seen are in or above the price range of much better laptops with much more "stuff"... :confused:
 
I'm seeing so much flawed logic in this thread it's making my head hurt. Netbooks are great machines as they do 99% of what 99% of the public needs. I use mine all the time for typing reports, browsing the web, hosting trivia, in class, computer repair, etc. It performs all of those tasks flawlessly and the battery life is good enough that I don't have to recharge it until I get home.

Why spend double the money on an ultra-book when you can save the $200-400 for something else and still be just as satisfied. The death of the Netbook will be a sad day indeed.

*Note that my netbook is AMD powered.
 
$300 was dirt cheap for a laptop a couple years ago. The trend had to start somewhere.

Now Microcenter has had a dual AMD laptop on sale for $250-$280 almost all year. Throw an SSD in that thing it would probably be great for casual usage.

The price bracket had to start somewhere. $300 a couple years ago didn't get much. Today they can do better then an Atom. But back then they couldn't. We should all understand how this works. 5 years ago I though Cell phones were overpriced and useless outside of phone calls. Today I use a smart phone for nearly all my casual browsing. That doesn't take away from what cell phones of yesteryear made possible.
 
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