2009 Netbooks Sales Up, Notebooks Down

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The good news: Netbook sales are up. The bad news: It came at the expense of the rest of the portable PC market.

The latest DisplaySearch Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report, released Tuesday, found that the surge in Netbook (mini-notebook) sales was not enough to offset declines for ultra-portables and larger laptops. Aside from Netbooks, annual revenue will likely be down in every portable PC category.
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I'm doing the best I can bringing up notebook sales, dammit!

This week I purchased 4 HP EliteBook 2530p and 5 Lenovo ThinkPad SL510 for my company.
 
I think the general populace is finally realizing they don't need a core 2 duo and 4gb of ram to browse the web and do general productivity crap!!!! I was waiting for this day!

Now I can stop gagging when I see super duper laptops with crap tons of ram, storage, and cpu speed... none of which will ever be utilized because even IF the person decided they wanted to game, the thing has a IGP with the power of an etch-a-sketch.
 
So during a bas recession more exspesive computer sales suffered and cheaper computer sales did better. Those PhDs are going to good use.
 
I've regretted my current laptop for about the past 2 years. I came with the expectations of it for gaming or professional purposes. In both cases, it fails horribly. Doing any sort of stress on the CPU causes it to overheat and any professional work restricts my battery time thus keeping me tethered to the wall. I've come to the conclusion doing anything that is computationally expensive should still be used in desktops and workstations.

It really is not worth doing anything more than word processing, music, and web browsing on laptops. These three applications do benefit from portability and since they are relatively low powered applications (except for Flash). Using a CULV or netbook would be ideal. I think what we are seeing is a radical yet reactionary movement in computing. People are moving away from laptops because they realize that they only need networking support and maybe Word which can be done with meager specced machines. Workstations, desktops, are likely going to remain but act more or less like a server. Others will utilize the cloud to do their more intensive applications like storage or computational tasks.
 
I love the low power usage of a netbook, but by GOD the resolution has to be upped a bit to at least 1024x768! I have an old Vaio that is maybe 1/2inch wider than my Gateway netbook but with a way higher res.
 
Biskquik said:
I've regretted my current laptop for about the past 2 years. I came with the expectations of it for gaming or professional purposes. In both cases, it fails horribly. Doing any sort of stress on the CPU causes it to overheat and any professional work restricts my battery time thus keeping me tethered to the wall. I've come to the conclusion doing anything that is computationally expensive should still be used in desktops and workstations.

It really is not worth doing anything more than word processing, music, and web browsing on laptops. These three applications do benefit from portability and since they are relatively low powered applications (except for Flash). Using a CULV or netbook would be ideal. I think what we are seeing is a radical yet reactionary movement in computing. People are moving away from laptops because they realize that they only need networking support and maybe Word which can be done with meager specced machines. Workstations, desktops, are likely going to remain but act more or less like a server. Others will utilize the cloud to do their more intensive applications like storage or computational tasks.
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Reminds me of a movie "If you build it they will buy it.":D What I would like to see is being able to utilize more then one wireless connection at a time. I went into town and their were 3 non password protected wireless stations, with fair to good connection. Whats the hold up in that department other then a little tech related problem that I'm sure someone here could figure out, and I'm to old to go back to school.
 
I know a few people that bought an inexpensive netbook because it did exactly what they wanted it to. Why pay twice as much for something you won't ever use?
 
Not surprising with this economy, and how well net books perform the basics. They are fast enough most of the time. I will definitely be buying one when my lappy dies. The only games I play on it anyway are Popcap, and flash games. The only thing that might keep me from buying one are the keyboards. The ones I have tried at Office Depot, did not have keyboards that I thought I would be willing to suffer using long term for word processing. In fact, most lap tops do not have keyboards I am all that fond of.
 
N2OInferno said:
I know a few people that bought an inexpensive netbook because it did exactly what they wanted it to. Why pay twice as much for something you won't ever use?
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I buy notebooks for employees on the road instead of netbooks because netbook would not be able to handle programs with SQL express very efficiently. That and employees appreciate the DVD drive, being on the road and all. I don't have time to teach a hundred 60-year-olds how to rip DVD's to thumb drives.

Our HP 6710b and 6730b does about 4 hours on a normal workload (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc), and about 3 when hammering the DVD drive with movies. Ditto the ThinkPad SL510.

Our HP 2530p does about 5-6 hours depending on the load, using a 9-cell battery (it's a 12" laptop).

Modern laptops with modest integrated graphics (4500MHD, GMA350, Mobility 3200/4200) and a Centrino Duo does a very decent job with battery life.
 
Jakalwarrior said:
I think the general populace is finally realizing they don't need a core 2 duo and 4gb of ram to browse the web and do general productivity crap!!!! I was waiting for this day!

Now I can stop gagging when I see super duper laptops with crap tons of ram, storage, and cpu speed... none of which will ever be utilized because even IF the person decided they wanted to game, the thing has a IGP with the power of an etch-a-sketch.
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This. If you need more power, there's still the under-12" ones around that pull off all the full-sized one would have anyway. At around 3 pounds, an inch thick, and a bit smaller than an 8.5/11" sheet of paper I love mine :D. Barring 3d gaming of any magnitude, it does everything I could need, heck frankly anything except the heavier parts of my development work.

chinesepiratefood said:
I would never consider a netbook, too small, too slow.
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I have an 11.6" Acer Timeline netbook with a Core 2 Duo 1.3ghz (2MB cache instead of 3MB, but it's a CULV model) and 3GB RAM, works a treat ;). The screen's plenty big for 99% of tasks I want to do away from my main PC, and the speed is quick enough to do some smaller heavy-duty tasks even. It's not slow at all.

the-one1 said:
I love the low power usage of a netbook, but by GOD the resolution has to be upped a bit to at least 1024x768! I have an old Vaio that is maybe 1/2inch wider than my Gateway netbook but with a way higher res.
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The Acer netbook I mentioned above uses a 1366x768 resolution :D. I posted my thoughts about it here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1476261 , initial impressions have held true through now. The thing literally gets 10 hours during normal word processing/web browsing/a bunch of youtube videos/etc. with the wifi going, more when I am using bluetooth to my phone.
 
Azhar said:
I buy notebooks for employees on the road instead of netbooks because netbook would not be able to handle programs with SQL express very efficiently. That and employees appreciate the DVD drive, being on the road and all. I don't have time to teach a hundred 60-year-olds how to rip DVD's to thumb drives.

Our HP 6710b and 6730b does about 4 hours on a normal workload (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc), and about 3 when hammering the DVD drive with movies. Ditto the ThinkPad SL510.

Our HP 2530p does about 5-6 hours depending on the load, using a 9-cell battery (it's a 12" laptop).

Modern laptops with modest integrated graphics (4500MHD, GMA350, Mobility 3200/4200) and a Centrino Duo does a very decent job with battery life.
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Acer UL80VT-A1, problem solved... :).
 
GoldenTiger said:
Acer UL80VT-A1, problem solved... :).
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That's a consumer level laptop though. 1.4ghz isn't going to handle Java-base programs such as Oracle/Primavera Project Management, pushing data through SQL 2005 Express or Oracle Express. It'll probably cost another $150 to get them with Windows 7 Professional.

The HP 6730b and ThinkPad SL510 cost about $750-800 with 360gb drive, 4gb RAM, Win7Pro x64, and Core2Duo 2.2ghz. It's only weak point (if you were gaming anyways) is it's Intel 4500MHD integrated graphics, but it's more than fast enough for non-gaming use.
 
I bought two netbooks (one for the wife) and one notebook (in my sig) this year. I used my netbook more then the Dell since it weighs a lot less and more portable...
 
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