Ross Rubin (@rossrubin) contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
If the PC marketplace were an ocean, you’d see a strange sight — small fish (netbooks) eating medium-sized fish (notebooks) eating large fish (desktops). But PC vendors are only partially pleased with this inversion of the natural order. While they embrace the replacement of desktops with higher-margin notebooks, they fear the cannibalization of notebooks with low-margin netbooks. Fast-growing and inexpensive netbooks have become such a threat to the notebook business that Intel and Microsoft have been wrestling with how they can adjust pricing in order to persuade PC makers not to market budget Atom-based laptops that have screens larger than 10″ such as the sleek 11.6″ Acer Aspire One A075 or 12.1″ Lenovo IdeaPad S12.
Slower, less expensive processors running an older, lower-priced version of Windows have put pressure on Microsoft’s Windows revenue. But rather than bemoaning consumer demand for less powerful PCs, Microsoft would do well to create more incentive to purchasing more powerful ones. Apple has partially addressed this issue by including, enhancing and promoting iMovie and GarageBand in its bundled iLife suite. These are two applications that can become quite processor-intensive when used for sophisticated tasks, like stabilizing a jumpy video.
But even more significantly, Apple has made the issue moot by creating an effective floor in the Mac product line of an Intel Core 2 Duo. Clearly that’s not an option for Microsoft, nor for many of its PC vendor partners catering to more value-minded shoppers. Indeed, Microsoft has optimized the Windows 7 kernel to run more efficiently on the lower-end netbooks that are the source for growth in the PC market. And that’s the right move.
Continue reading Switched On: Compelling computing can keep netbooks niche
Filed under: Laptops
Switched On: Compelling computing can keep netbooks niche originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Verizon Wireless announced it has added 1.1 million customers in the second quarter. That’s less than AT&T’s 1.4 million, but still isn’t bad considering Verizon doesn’t have the iPhone, as MediaPost reports.
