For a few months now, The VAR Guy has been predicting that Netbooks — otherwise known as sub-notebooks — would be the hot ticket in the PC market during the fourth quarter. He’s still sticking to that prediction. Here’s why.
Netbooks typically cost around $450 or less, and they’re great devices for checking email, hopping onto WiFi networks and surfing the web. Not positioned as a full desktop replacement, Netbooks are expected to your “other” computer.
For some folks, that would sound like an insult. But for the PC market, Netbooks are a welcome way to grow the industry. The Asus Eee PC wins kudos for sparking the Netbook revolution. But now Dell (Mini 9), Toshiba and even Lenovo (IdeaPad) are jumping into the Netbook market.
And small PC makers are firing back by reselling the latest Asus Eee PCs. Exciting times on the hardware front, for sure.
But the bigger news is on the software side of the house. All of the major PC makers are offering Linux as an option/alternative to Windows-based Netbooks.
If The VAR Guy had to guess, he’d expect Linux to garner anywhere from 5 percent to 20 percent of the Netbook market.
Tags: Dell Mini 9 | Lenovo IdeaPad | Netbooks | Toshiba Netbook
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Not only are the netbooks fertile ground for GNU/Linux, some sellers even sell the same hardware configuration with XP or GNU/Linux as an option, up-front, with nowhere for M$ to hide. It is about time. The HP Mini-Note is one of them. The difference in hardware features is 0 and the difference in price is $100. It is great to have some competition in the OS market for a change.
I agree. This will cause MS some consternation - could this be a way people become familiar with linux/cloud computing/etc and start a migration away from on premise computing.
That said, im not entirely sure where the opportunity lies for many IT companies in the new “cloud world” - assuming it happens.
Chris Martin
Hound Dog Technology
Easy, Affordable Tool for IT Support.
We’ve been shortlisted (along with Microsoft & Oracle) for CRN’s Software Vendor of the Year.
Update: Now, Dell has launched its first print advertisements for Netbooks running Ubuntu.