Netbooks Forecasted to Die Off by 2015

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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The netbook never actually found its place in the computer world on its own merit, but rather utilized as a bridge between platforms. Netbook sales saw their peak in 2010 and has been on a steady decline ever since due mostly to the popularity of tablet computer sales.
 
That sucks. As a person who likes inexpensive, small laptops, I was very happy to see netbooks become popular. Thanks to Intel and Microsoft appealing to vendors to release higher build quality systems, the cost of even an Atom-powered device has gone up significantly. Look, for instance, at Clover Trail-based tablets and what people are expected to pay for netbook class hardware in tablet form. Beyond that, there are Ultrabooks and premium platforms like the Surface Pro which are admittedly very nice hardware, but fail to compete at a price point most people are willing to pay.
 
Thank god!

Sounded like a good idea at the time till you actually used them.

I now refuse to fix them if customers bring them to me for repair. For not a lot more then the cost of repair you can buy a new laptop thats far more powerful and usable.
 
I don't know...I've always been a fan of the small form factor. Right now I'm using an Acer AO756 with a SB Celeron in it. It's a little more powerful than a netbook, but still in that "netbook" category with the 11.6" screen. For the $200 they run, I don't see any problem with it.

The old 32-bit single core atoms are a different story...I'll be glad to see those go.
 
I like my netbook. It may be slow, limited but for web browsing and chatting with friends, the small unit and weight kept me company while I was in the hospital.

I run it with Linux Mint and it's pretty decent. However, I find it idiotic for netbook OEMs to install Windows 7 Starter on such a low-powered, low memory system. Windows 7 CANNOT frickin' run on 1GB of RAM, let alone the maximum 2GB in most of these netbooks. There is a lot of disk-swapping/disc-thrashing with the virtual memory because of the need for extra memory.

I'm amazed that even Windows 8 runs on tablets with 2GB, but I wonder if it's smooth.

On my netbook, so long as I don't exceed 3 windows in Windows 8 Starter or no more than 10 tabs in Firefox, IE8 or Chrome, the netbook won't throw a fit on me. That it takes about 3 minutes to boot up just to the desktop and another two minutes for the netbook to stop loading background programs.

They should of went with Linux-based distro because I can be in Firefox or Chrome within two minutes from turning on to booting to desktop. And, that netbook was pretty content with that OS on 1GB of RAM and it served me well in the hospital.

Intel Atom is such a weak processor, an AMD APU would make more sense in a netbook to be used for day-to-day tasks than that. At the same time, their inexpensive price was attractive.

I can't wait to get a new laptop since I actual want to do some light gaming if I get admitted to the hospital again. Heck, even Flash games can barely run on an Intel Atom processor.
 
600 pixel depth screens with 700 pixel depth windows...yayyyyy!

single core Atoms...yayyyy!

Ultra slow 8GB SSD drives...yayyyy!

Ultra slow 4200rpm HDDs...yayyyy!

Too small touchpads with crappy buttons...yayyy!

Yes what was so bad about the netbook experience?

When they came out a lot of folks thought "wow thats perfect for taking on holiday!" because the only other option was the standard 14" laptop or the ultra expensive boutique 12".

Then once purchased they were a pig to use and only just good enough for looking at Gmail and Tripadvisor.

Then tablets and smartphones arrived to the mainstream and they did the job much better in most cases.

I won't be taking my old Acer Aspire One with Ubuntu on it on hols next week.
 
octoberasian said:
I like my netbook. It may be slow, limited but for web browsing and chatting with friends, the small unit and weight kept me company while I was in the hospital.

I run it with Linux Mint and it's pretty decent. However, I find it idiotic for netbook OEMs to install Windows 7 Starter on such a low-powered, low memory system. Windows 7 CANNOT frickin' run on 1GB of RAM, let alone the maximum 2GB in most of these netbooks. There is a lot of disk-swapping/disc-thrashing with the virtual memory because of the need for extra memory.

I'm amazed that even Windows 8 runs on tablets with 2GB, but I wonder if it's smooth.

On my netbook, so long as I don't exceed 3 windows in Windows 8 Starter or no more than 10 tabs in Firefox, IE8 or Chrome, the netbook won't throw a fit on me. That it takes about 3 minutes to boot up just to the desktop and another two minutes for the netbook to stop loading background programs.

They should of went with Linux-based distro because I can be in Firefox or Chrome within two minutes from turning on to booting to desktop. And, that netbook was pretty content with that OS on 1GB of RAM and it served me well in the hospital.

Intel Atom is such a weak processor, an AMD APU would make more sense in a netbook to be used for day-to-day tasks than that. At the same time, their inexpensive price was attractive.

I can't wait to get a new laptop since I actual want to do some light gaming if I get admitted to the hospital again. Heck, even Flash games can barely run on an Intel Atom processor.
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Asus started the netbook thing with the Eee PC and it was Linux-only initially. However, because a lot of people installed a Windows OS after purchase, Asus experimented with OEM Windows and found the both the return rate was lower and the number of sales was higher so they and the rest of the industry just started to sell Windows-based netbooks instead. That was really when they took off and it again proved that Linux just wasn't going to compete on mainstream hardware sold to the masses. :(
 
daglesj said:
Thank god!

Sounded like a good idea at the time till you actually used them.

I now refuse to fix them if customers bring them to me for repair. For not a lot more then the cost of repair you can buy a new laptop thats far more powerful and usable.
Click to expand...

You're probably doing your customers a favor. As much as I like using a netbook, when they break, they're just not worth the cost of having someone repair them when they can buy a budget laptop for about roughly the same cost. I dread the day when mine finally has had enough and stops working because it's been great to travel with and is a lot less obvious when I use it for Creepy Google Data Collection than a full size laptop.
 
Actually the pricing isn't the great when you consider if you look at a price of a laptop you can buy a netbook for 200 and usually add 100 more and you get a 15in laptop with 4gb ram now a days and 500gb hd .

I almost got sucked in but decided not to at least a laptop is somewhat repairable I've replaced keyboard added ram to mine and its still good
 
I too enjoy my netbook, it's a shame that they mostly got replaced by tablets instead of developed further.

Personally, I don't have the need for a full sized and full priced laptop. I have a nice desktop at home and I have a nice desktop at work to do anything I need to do on a large screen and/or powerful hardware.

I bought my netbook when I was an undergraduate and though we had a computer lab, I wanted something I could read papers, write reports/spreadsheets on when the lab was full or during lectures I was finding boring without having to be tethered to a power point and without having to lug a larger laptop around.

It served that purpose well and even since then I've found myself using it from time to time (mostly when I travel) and still haven't felt the need for a full sized laptop.
 
daglesj said:
600 pixel depth screens with 700 pixel depth windows...yayyyyy!

single core Atoms...yayyyy!

Ultra slow 8GB SSD drives...yayyyy!

Ultra slow 4200rpm HDDs...yayyyy!

Too small touchpads with crappy buttons...yayyy!

Yes what was so bad about the netbook experience?

When they came out a lot of folks thought "wow thats perfect for taking on holiday!" because the only other option was the standard 14" laptop or the ultra expensive boutique 12".

Then once purchased they were a pig to use and only just good enough for looking at Gmail and Tripadvisor.

Then tablets and smartphones arrived to the mainstream and they did the job much better in most cases.

I won't be taking my old Acer Aspire One with Ubuntu on it on hols next week.
Click to expand...

How do tablets or a phone do anything better? I can see phones being nice due to the size, but a netbook is way better than a tablet for pretty much everything. Tablets are what should die off, and probably will with the giant phones coming out.

The only thing a tablet has going for it is it looks futuristic. The form factor makes sense when you can hold it in one hand easily, otherwise completely stupid, and they will go away.
 
My netbook is great for network work. I still get 7 hours out of the battery. A strictly work laptop that would last a whole workday when I do on-sites.
 
I like the netbook form factor, I don't think that it's dieing because people don't want it but because the industry doesn't like them and never developed them properly. Look at all the restrictions that were placed on them by the hardware manufacturers in the first round: they limited the screen resolution, the processor, the ram, and all because they new it was a very attractive form factor that would eat into the sales of larger laptops if left unchecked. So now they're made the Ultra Book. similar idea but WAY more expensive and usually a lot bigger. Look around and you can still find the 11" form factor, they just cost $1200+ instead of the $200-$400 price point that made netbooks so appealing.
 
octoberasian said:
Windows 7 CANNOT frickin' run on 1GB of RAM, let alone the maximum 2GB in most of these netbooks.
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Eh, I disagree. I think Windows 7 Starter runs decent with 2gb of RAM. Of course don't expect 64-bit to run with such little ram, but 2gb is enough for 32-bit Windows IMO. I remember my netbook was slow as hell before I put a 2gb stick into it. Still, it's slow sometimes at starting up, but once it gets running, it fine. The worst part about it for me, however, is that the integrated gpu and cpu are so lame that it lags on YouTube videos if you put anything above 480p.
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
How do tablets or a phone do anything better? I can see phones being nice due to the size, but a netbook is way better than a tablet for pretty much everything. Tablets are what should die off, and probably will with the giant phones coming out.

The only thing a tablet has going for it is it looks futuristic. The form factor makes sense when you can hold it in one hand easily, otherwise completely stupid, and they will go away.
Click to expand...

Tablets are media devices (book reader, movie player, web surfing) and the form factor is perfect for the job. The only thing that is stupid is people who think a tablet is a PC replacement.
 
This isn't really a shocker. I thought a netbook would be perfect for what I needed in a portable. I talked about them enough that my girlfriend (now wife), bought be one when I graduated from college. It was only then that I discovered what a PITA it was to use. It seemed like it would hang on just about anything that wasn't simplest web browsing. One of the big reasons I wanted one was for Skype since I was moving after college. That turned out to also be a mess...constant video freezes and whatnot. After I got my first smart phone (OG Droid), the netbook just collected dust in my closet until we gave it to my mother-in-law. She literally doesn't know how to do much on a PC besides email, so it's fine for her.
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
How do tablets or a phone do anything better? I can see phones being nice due to the size, but a netbook is way better than a tablet for pretty much everything. Tablets are what should die off, and probably will with the giant phones coming out.

The only thing a tablet has going for it is it looks futuristic. The form factor makes sense when you can hold it in one hand easily, otherwise completely stupid, and they will go away.
Click to expand...

Like I mentioned with the hamstring spec that the majority of Netbooks had (single core atoms, 512MB-1GB of ram, 600 pixel depth screens) to be honest my Nexus 4 stomps over my netbook from a high height. Even my identical screen size (as a netbook) dual core Blackberry Playbook destroys my netbook for web use and email. That cost me £120!

Phones/Tablets and 11" Chromebooks all beat Netbook use for me.

But looking from your post it appears you are either being ironic or quite insane.:D
 
Netbooks are transforming into tablet hybrids. Clover Trail Atom Windows 8 tablets do everything netbooks do with much better screens, are faster, lighter and even have better battery life with fanless designs than typical netbook. The prices aren't there yet but I would imagine that by 2015 $200 to $300 Windows 10" to 11" hybrids will be pretty common.
 
Typing this on an ASUS 1000HEB. That's a rare model, from what I can tell, because it was only sold at Best Buy *cue laughtrack* and not many people bought one. My father did, though, and he gave it to me, brand new, in May of 2009 when I graduated college.

It was my main system until June of last year when he gave me his Dell Inspiron 6400. That laptop (fully twice the size, and something like five times the weight... seriously it's got the mass of an effing cinderblock) right now has some strange behavior problems and I'm in the process of doing a reinstall to cure them.

But my netbook? I'm quite fond of this little thing. Sure, it's a bit cramped -- feels like I'm using the screen off my TI-83+. But one gets used to it. The only real problem with the screen is that it's stuck forever at 1024x600 (unless I want to go smaller!) -- which is a pain on flash-based websites which don't give you a scroll bar... but IMO that's more "poor web design at work" rather than anything to do with the netbook. All websites should have a scroll bar if the window requires it, and not providing that... well, it just seems bloody stupid to me.

Is the netbook slow? Define slow. My Dell does everything faster, but it's got a 2ghz T7200 and 3gb RAM in it, versus the Atom N270 and 2gb RAM (best. upgrade. evar.) in the netbook. When this netbook was my main system, I ran a lot of stuff on it. Firefox (and later Chrome), usually with about three jazillion tabs open, with sessions that last multiple weeks; CorelDRAW X3, a professional vector graphics program; The GIMP; OpenOffice (and later LibreOffice) etc. All of this on XP SP3, and most of it at the same time. The only program that ever gave me grief was The GIMP -- it took ~5min (literally) to open -- but once it was open, it was fine.

Hardware problems? What hardware problems? OK, so 1gb of RAM is a little measly (fixed with an upgrade) and one of the USB ports doesn't work anymore (it quit early on -- the one on the right-hand side next to the SD card slot), and this model has the Left-Click Touchpad Problem that's quite well known (remind me what the fix is for that?) AND my cat ran through the headphones early one morning and utterly destroyed the headphone jack (fixed with a USB audio dongle from the [H] freebies thread), but it's still what I'd consider 95% perfect condition.

Everything's relative. Is my netbook fast? I don't know. Give me something to compare it to. It's fast enough for me, though, and that's what counts ;)

Not to mention how portable these things are, simply because they ARE so tiny... would I like a bigger screen? Hell yes! But then it wouldn't be so easy to haul around. I can carry this thing, open and running, one handed -- which is rather a bit of a harder task with my behemoth Dell.

Maybe I'll put Puppeee on the netbook sometime. That was the first Puppy Linux version I ever used -- and therefore is the Puppy that's responsible for a lot of nice and Linuxy things in my life now. Ubuntu is fat and slow and full of more bloat than the Gas-X commercials that had inflating people in them. Puppy is light and lean and freaking fast. It's also awesome ;) but so is my netbook.

I love this netbook. I don't think I'll be getting rid of it any time soon. It's just too useful.
 
I just had an old Atom 330 deluxe netbook die, it was a great system from 2010 on, especially for the cost compared to other laptops.
Unfortunate, but man, those single-core Atoms were indeed slow.
 
octoberasian said:
... Windows 7 CANNOT frickin' run on 1GB of RAM, let alone the maximum 2GB in most of these netbooks. ...
Click to expand...

BALDERDASH!

When Win 7 first came out, just for giggles and grins I tried putting Home Premium on an Asus Eee with the 900 Celeron and 2 GB RAM. It installed just fine, and actually runs BETTER with Win 7 on it that it did with XP. It's not a "Gaming" system and was never supposed to be. Used for just basic browsing, email, etc., it's just fine.

Netbooks have their place and I don't see them disappearing.

Yeah, you can get a 15" notebook for not much more than a netbook, but not everyone want to carry something that big around.
 
Actually Windows 7 will run on 1GB of RAM, but after opening one program or application, it will most certainly start to eat into virtual memory.
For basic tasks, this is more than enough.
 
royce321 said:
arguably netbooks evolved into "ultra" books
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No they evolved (or were displaced) by Smartphones and tablets. In fact the timing of the iPad is about right to perhaps being Apple's response to netbooks.

If I saw one place where netbooks fell short on their promises, it was the promise of portability. To really be used, you need to set them down the same way you'd set down a laptop to use. So although easier to tote around, there were few other places you could use it that you couldn't use a laptop. The tablet solves this be dispensing with the keyboard.

If I had to describe a tablet to someone that was on a deserted island since 2010, I would describe a tablet as a netbook without a physical keyboard and a touch screen running a lightweight OS.
 
I still love my Netbook and miss many things about it even though I'm using a hacked Chromebook now. The Chromebook bests the netbook in just about every way, performance wise... but not form factor wise. The keyboard, even as cramped as they were on the 9" Aspire Ones, is also much better. The 11.5" screen on this Chromebook is also a tad too large for my liking as it really does seem like a much bigger jump from the 9" screen on the Netbook than 2.5" would suggest.

But yes, I got the Chromebook because the netbook couldn't hack it anymore. It's still something I'm going to miss because there's nothing else like them on the market. I'd much prefer the Chromebook specs in the Netbook package.
 
Got my wife one with an Intel SU4100 back in 2010, surprisingly powerful processor for such a little netbook. Still alive and kicking today with no issues.
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
How do tablets or a phone do anything better? I can see phones being nice due to the size, but a netbook is way better than a tablet for pretty much everything. Tablets are what should die off, and probably will with the giant phones coming out.

The only thing a tablet has going for it is it looks futuristic. The form factor makes sense when you can hold it in one hand easily, otherwise completely stupid, and they will go away.
Click to expand...

Tablets are faster, more responsive, have all day battery life, have much better displays, turn on from sleep instantly, and run tablet optimized applications and games better than their Windows counterparts. I'm positive that the upcoming Hearthstone by Blizzard will run better on an iPad than the Windows version on a netbook.

Tablets aren't going anywhere, not the way they keep selling faster and faster while desktop and laptop sales decline.

If you need a laptop, spend a few extra bucks and get a real laptop. Netbooks were never very good at anything.
 
afoctober2 said:
Actually the pricing isn't the great when you consider if you look at a price of a laptop you can buy a netbook for 200 and usually add 100 more and you get a 15in laptop with 4gb ram now a days and 500gb hd .

I almost got sucked in but decided not to at least a laptop is somewhat repairable I've replaced keyboard added ram to mine and its still good
Click to expand...

Except that cheap 15" laptop is 2x the size & weight of a netbook.

The atom based netbooks with the 10" screen where just a little too slow and low-res (1024x600) to be useful for most people.

I have an old Acer with a 11.6 screen (1368x768) and a dual core Celeron for when I travel. Not much bigger than a netbook (even fit into the room safe on a cruise), but useful with the higher res screen and 4x the cpu speed of the old single core atom netbook. Even upgraded it to a 500GB 7200rpm drive so I have room to bring along some movies and I have a place to backup my picture/videos while on vacation :)
 
nutzo said:
Except that cheap 15" laptop is 2x the size & weight of a netbook.

The atom based netbooks with the 10" screen where just a little too slow and low-res (1024x600) to be useful for most people.

I have an old Acer with a 11.6 screen (1368x768) and a dual core Celeron for when I travel. Not much bigger than a netbook (even fit into the room safe on a cruise), but useful with the higher res screen and 4x the cpu speed of the old single core atom netbook. Even upgraded it to a 500GB 7200rpm drive so I have room to bring along some movies and I have a place to backup my picture/videos while on vacation :)
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Indeed, sounds a useful machine. Unfortunately 90% of netbooks sold were the former crappy ones.:(
 
The only redeeming aspect of netbooks is their size. In particular, the vast majority had utterly infuriatingly bad touchpads and keyboards. They were built to a budget and often had a hodgepodge of antiquated parts. Or at the very least the lowest bidder's parts. The thing I hated most about my MSI Wind was the trackpad. It was absolutely horrendous and frustrating. Not only was it tiny, it was unresponsive and prone to wild movements for reasons I could never figure out (other than it was cheap junk).

Honestly, if I want a really portable laptop I'm just going to avoid netbooks and opt for an ultrabook. They're more expensive, true, but they won't cause me to become utterly frustrated with my computer with slow, old or cheap (or old and cheap) parts.
 
My s10-2 running xubutu 12.10 (single core/ht) actually seems faster in linux than my newer E-240 (single core, 1.4ghz, apu).

I'd love to see a netbook form factor with 1366x768 (instead of the dumb 15"+ screens at that res) with a quad core apu. Too bad they are being killed off.
 
GrumpyCatGOOD..jpg
 
heatlesssun said:
Netbooks are transforming into tablet hybrids. Clover Trail Atom Windows 8 tablets do everything netbooks do with much better screens, are faster, lighter and even have better battery life with fanless designs than typical netbook. The prices aren't there yet but I would imagine that by 2015 $200 to $300 Windows 10" to 11" hybrids will be pretty common.
Click to expand...

Clover Trail isn't significantly faster except in graphics where it still fails to compete with modern ARM SoCs. Buying a CT tablet seems poorly thought out when an iPad has a lot more compute power for a similar price. If the CT prices come down then it might be worthwhile, but they neeed to beat cheap China ARM tablets if they want to have a chance.
 
Intel and Microsoft reaping the reward for being shortsighted on netbooks and laptops. They are ultimately responsible for allowing the OEM free reign to make shitty slow products. Now that everyone has had a turn using a netbook that chugs along or a $399 lowest common denominator laptop with a washed out 720p screen they wonder why the market is sagging.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Clover Trail isn't significantly faster except in graphics where it still fails to compete with modern ARM SoCs. Buying a CT tablet seems poorly thought out when an iPad has a lot more compute power for a similar price. If the CT prices come down then it might be worthwhile, but they neeed to beat cheap China ARM tablets if they want to have a chance.
Click to expand...

All depends on what you want to do. The question when considering any tablet is is it good enough to meet the need. CT devices aren't going to when any performance benchmarks, that's not the point. If you want great battery life in a thin and light package that's capable of running thousands of x86 programs natively with good enough performance, then a CT device might work well. Plus most of these CT tablets have digital pens, something lacking in the iPad and quite useful in an application like OneNote if one wants to take handwritten notes.

I am definitely interested in seeing what Bay Trail tablets bring to the table. If the performance of Atom can be boosted by what Intel is claiming while improving battery life a bit and dramatically increasing GPU performance in a bit cheaper offerings than current CT tablets, I think Intel will have a winner on its hands.
 
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