[epmoon]

I think one of the reasons they are less favoured is due to the fact that they come with Win 7 starter edition. Load them up with Ubuntu 12.04 and you will never look back. I've tried it on an Acer aspire one and it rocks.. I wouldn't trade it for an ipad 2.. Ipads are consumption devices, but its hard to get any real work done. And when you add a keyboard to an ipad then why not just get a netbook?

[Mroz]

Hm so people don't buy a new netbook every quarter so it is the reason why is it dying. Sales are lower but guess why... people already bought it last quarter

[ee2718]

Quote

So let's get this right: Worldwide sales dropped from 9.2 to 6.4 million units per quarter over 2 years. Yes, a big drop - but netbooks are still selling at 6.4 million a quarter! Dead?

It is only going to drop faster with better tablets and ARM Chromebooks becoming available for those who want keyboards.

[brainout]

I guess this guy didn't do much research prior to writing. So here's some help. Walmart is selling a TON of netbooks, has a complete Acer line. Problem is, they didn't configure them correctly; the ones which are configured correctly, are often sold out, online. But the people buying them, are still happy, if you read their reviews. Moreover, at Dell Auction where I've been all day (buying computers), the Inspiron 4010 netbooks with no OS are being snapped up for nearly $400. Those things don't even have gigabit Ethernet, are usually i3 or i5, and only 2.53 GHz.

Since Walmart doesn't configure the netbooks correctly, after MONTHS of trying to decide which one to buy, I left Walmart and surfed in Amazon. Just bought my second Acer 8.9" netbook there, two days ago. Same as my first one, Acer Aspire One A0A 150. Was a pistol to find it. Got it for $120 (with XP Pro newly reinstalled, per the user selling it) and snapped it up used -- as the OTHER Acers of the same model were selling for $300 or more. If you go to Amazon and search on 'netbooks', you'll find the cheapest one is about $340+, with the average being over $400+, all with only 1 GHZ-1.6 GHz. You can buy them with XP, Windows 7, or Windows 8 preinstalled.

Why $400+ average? Netbooks appeal far better than a tablet, and not only because they are cheaper. They are more useful. I've written before about how, when my desktop had died, I just hooked up the netbook and kept on going. My desktop died three times, the last one at the September corporate tax deadline; I just hooked up the external clone drive of the dead machine, and baby I was able to meet my 3pm deadline.

Can't do that, with a tablet. The 1 GHz processor (Intel Atom, in the Acer) didn't slow down the machine on the net, though I had expected it to. It performed as well as my Dell 8400 3.4 GHz Pentium 4, which is better than my HP 6400 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon workstation. The only drawback was that I had fewer USB ports (three, on an Acer) versus the desktop (typically 8-10). Netbooks have VGA monitor connection, 5-in-1 card readers, very nice machine. So you're not stuck with a small screen, if that bothers you. Screen clarity is wonderful, on the Acer. HDD is 160GB on the one I just bought; in newer Acers 320GB, and older versions 70GB. More than enough, since you have the SSD readers and USB ports.

The newer Acers often have HDMI ports, too. Same for the Dell and Asus and Gateway netbooks I saw sold at Walmart or Amazon.

Best of all, I can lie on my stomach with that little Acer in front of me -- I don't have to hold it -- and can angle the screen well and compute, surf, compose -- anything I can do on the desktop, for up to 9 hours without recharging. They are GREAT for travel (much preferred over my other laptops) and GREAT when you want to read Kindle stuff (I bought over 120 Kindle books for that reason). I have to spend a lot of time reading pension law, so they are wonderful for that, too. I can then edit, convert to Word or back to pdf, create legal briefs or other stuff for my clients. Just as I can on the desktop. I have an old dedicated numeric keypad which I can plug in, if I have to do a lot of actuarial number-crunching. So I don't need a bigger keyboard. But could hook one up, if desired.

Laptops and ultrabooks are too big, bulky. The netbook is a dream come true for a traveller who wants nearly-as-good-as-desktop working experience.

When playing movies on it, one needs to hook up external speakers, but the internal sound card is good, so not tinny. Absent external speakers of course, the sound is tinny; but more than loud enough for me to cook dinner while watching an episode of 24 (free in Amazon Instant Videos, for Amazon Prime Customers).

And somehow people know all this, for netbooks like Acer -- of 2008 vintage -- are still selling near their original prices or even better (my first one cost me $350 in 2008 at Walmart).

So you couldn't PAY me to use a tablet or an Ultrabook. I submit that the reason netbooks 'aren't selling' is that they're not being made. Savvy people who realize the tablet is way overrated, are buying netbooks. So their resale value remains high.

This post has been edited by brainout: 02 November 2012 - 06:38 PM

[LiveBrianD]

brainout, on 02 November 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

I guess this guy didn't do much research prior to writing. So here's some help. Walmart is selling a TON of netbooks, has a complete Acer line. Problem is, they didn't configure them correctly; the ones which are configured correctly, are often sold out, online. But the people buying them, are still happy, if you read their reviews. Moreover, at Dell Auction where I've been all day (buying computers), the Inspiron 4010 netbooks with no OS are being snapped up for nearly $400. Those things don't even have gigabit Ethernet, are usually i3 or i5, and only 2.53 GHz.

Since Walmart doesn't configure the netbooks correctly, after MONTHS of trying to decide which one to buy, I left Walmart and surfed in Amazon. Just bought my second Acer 8.9" netbook there, two days ago. Same as my first one, Acer Aspire One A0A 150. Was a pistol to find it. Got it for $120 (with XP Pro newly reinstalled, per the user selling it) and snapped it up used -- as the OTHER Acers of the same model were selling for $300 or more. If you go to Amazon and search on 'netbooks', you'll find the cheapest one is about $340+, with the average being over $400+, all with only 1 GHZ-1.6 GHz. You can buy them with XP, Windows 7, or Windows 8 preinstalled.

Why $400+ average? Netbooks appeal far better than a tablet, and not only because they are cheaper. They are more useful. I've written before about how, when my desktop had died, I just hooked up the netbook and kept on going. My desktop died three times, the last one at the September corporate tax deadline; I just hooked up the external clone drive of the dead machine, and baby I was able to meet my 3pm deadline.

Can't do that, with a tablet. The 1 GHz processor (Intel Atom, in the Acer) didn't slow down the machine on the net, though I had expected it to. It performed as well as my Dell 8400 3.4 GHz Pentium 4, which is better than my HP 6400 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon workstation. The only drawback was that I had fewer USB ports (three, on an Acer) versus the desktop (typically 8-10). Netbooks have VGA monitor connection, 5-in-1 card readers, very nice machine. So you're not stuck with a small screen, if that bothers you. Screen clarity is wonderful, on the Acer. HDD is 160GB on the one I just bought; in newer Acers 320GB, and older versions 70GB. More than enough, since you have the SSD readers and USB ports.

The newer Acers often have HDMI ports, too. Same for the Dell and Asus and Gateway netbooks I saw sold at Walmart or Amazon.

Best of all, I can lie on my stomach with that little Acer in front of me -- I don't have to hold it -- and can angle the screen well and compute, surf, compose -- anything I can do on the desktop, for up to 9 hours without recharging. They are GREAT for travel (much preferred over my other laptops) and GREAT when you want to read Kindle stuff (I bought over 120 Kindle books for that reason). I have to spend a lot of time reading pension law, so they are wonderful for that, too. I can then edit, convert to Word or back to pdf, create legal briefs or other stuff for my clients. Just as I can on the desktop. I have an old dedicated numeric keypad which I can plug in, if I have to do a lot of actuarial number-crunching. So I don't need a bigger keyboard. But could hook one up, if desired.

Laptops and ultrabooks are too big, bulky. The netbook is a dream come true for a traveller who wants nearly-as-good-as-desktop working experience.

When playing movies on it, one needs to hook up external speakers, but the internal sound card is good, so not tinny. Absent external speakers of course, the sound is tinny; but more than loud enough for me to cook dinner while watching an episode of 24 (free in Amazon Instant Videos, for Amazon Prime Customers).

And somehow people know all this, for netbooks like Acer -- of 2008 vintage -- are still selling near their original prices or even better (my first one cost me $350 in 2008 at Walmart).

So you couldn't PAY me to use a tablet or an Ultrabook. I submit that the reason netbooks 'aren't selling' is that they're not being made. Savvy people who realize the tablet is way overrated, are buying netbooks. So their resale value remains high.

For me, a lot of the 10" netbooks are a pain to use - cramped keyboards (it's hard for me to type on the 10" HP Minis at school because of that), small screens, and poor performance. (Whenever I have to use the ones at school, I think of how glad I am that I took the advice of forum members here and got a good 11" one instead of a 10" one.) That said, the 11" AMD APU ones are what netbooks really should be. I'm happy with my Lenovo x120e, and I can't see a tablet replacing it anytime soon. (unless those can run x86 Windows, eclipse, have a physical keyboard, etc... wait - I just described a regular laptop, didn't I?) I know the HP dm1z has also been popular, probably because it doesn't have the usual netbook issues. (it's similar to my x120e)

This post has been edited by LiveBrianD: 02 November 2012 - 07:52 PM

[waldojim]

brainout, on 02 November 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

Can't do that, with a tablet. The 1 GHz processor (Intel Atom, in the Acer) didn't slow down the machine on the net, though I had expected it to. It performed as well as my Dell 8400 3.4 GHz Pentium 4, which is better than my HP 6400 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon workstation. The only drawback was that I had fewer USB ports (three, on an Acer) versus the desktop (typically 8-10). Netbooks have VGA monitor connection, 5-in-1 card readers, very nice machine. So you're not stuck with a small screen, if that bothers you. Screen clarity is wonderful, on the Acer. HDD is 160GB on the one I just bought; in newer Acers 320GB, and older versions 70GB. More than enough, since you have the SSD readers and USB ports.

Every time I see this, I shake my head knowing that there is absolutely no way to take you seriously. There is simply no way to do so. First off, the P4 was already a DOG, then considering that Atom technology actually hails back to the Intel 80486 designs, and yet you claim they perform better than your Xeon workstation.

Complete and utter disbelief.

I do hope others see the absolute lunacy in posts like this.

[brainout]

LiveBrianD, on 02 November 2012 - 07:52 PM, said:

brainout, on 02 November 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

I guess this guy didn't do much research prior to writing. So here's some help. Walmart is selling a TON of netbooks, has a complete Acer line. Problem is, they didn't configure them correctly; the ones which are configured correctly, are often sold out, online. But the people buying them, are still happy, if you read their reviews. Moreover, at Dell Auction where I've been all day (buying computers), the Inspiron 4010 netbooks with no OS are being snapped up for nearly $400. Those things don't even have gigabit Ethernet, are usually i3 or i5, and only 2.53 GHz.

Since Walmart doesn't configure the netbooks correctly, after MONTHS of trying to decide which one to buy, I left Walmart and surfed in Amazon. Just bought my second Acer 8.9" netbook there, two days ago. Same as my first one, Acer Aspire One A0A 150. Was a pistol to find it. Got it for $120 (with XP Pro newly reinstalled, per the user selling it) and snapped it up used -- as the OTHER Acers of the same model were selling for $300 or more. If you go to Amazon and search on 'netbooks', you'll find the cheapest one is about $340+, with the average being over $400+, all with only 1 GHZ-1.6 GHz. You can buy them with XP, Windows 7, or Windows 8 preinstalled.

Why $400+ average? Netbooks appeal far better than a tablet, and not only because they are cheaper. They are more useful. I've written before about how, when my desktop had died, I just hooked up the netbook and kept on going. My desktop died three times, the last one at the September corporate tax deadline; I just hooked up the external clone drive of the dead machine, and baby I was able to meet my 3pm deadline.

Can't do that, with a tablet. The 1 GHz processor (Intel Atom, in the Acer) didn't slow down the machine on the net, though I had expected it to. It performed as well as my Dell 8400 3.4 GHz Pentium 4, which is better than my HP 6400 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon workstation. The only drawback was that I had fewer USB ports (three, on an Acer) versus the desktop (typically 8-10). Netbooks have VGA monitor connection, 5-in-1 card readers, very nice machine. So you're not stuck with a small screen, if that bothers you. Screen clarity is wonderful, on the Acer. HDD is 160GB on the one I just bought; in newer Acers 320GB, and older versions 70GB. More than enough, since you have the SSD readers and USB ports.

The newer Acers often have HDMI ports, too. Same for the Dell and Asus and Gateway netbooks I saw sold at Walmart or Amazon.

Best of all, I can lie on my stomach with that little Acer in front of me -- I don't have to hold it -- and can angle the screen well and compute, surf, compose -- anything I can do on the desktop, for up to 9 hours without recharging. They are GREAT for travel (much preferred over my other laptops) and GREAT when you want to read Kindle stuff (I bought over 120 Kindle books for that reason). I have to spend a lot of time reading pension law, so they are wonderful for that, too. I can then edit, convert to Word or back to pdf, create legal briefs or other stuff for my clients. Just as I can on the desktop. I have an old dedicated numeric keypad which I can plug in, if I have to do a lot of actuarial number-crunching. So I don't need a bigger keyboard. But could hook one up, if desired.

Laptops and ultrabooks are too big, bulky. The netbook is a dream come true for a traveller who wants nearly-as-good-as-desktop working experience.

When playing movies on it, one needs to hook up external speakers, but the internal sound card is good, so not tinny. Absent external speakers of course, the sound is tinny; but more than loud enough for me to cook dinner while watching an episode of 24 (free in Amazon Instant Videos, for Amazon Prime Customers).

And somehow people know all this, for netbooks like Acer -- of 2008 vintage -- are still selling near their original prices or even better (my first one cost me $350 in 2008 at Walmart).

So you couldn't PAY me to use a tablet or an Ultrabook. I submit that the reason netbooks 'aren't selling' is that they're not being made. Savvy people who realize the tablet is way overrated, are buying netbooks. So their resale value remains high.

For me, a lot of the 10" netbooks are a pain to use - cramped keyboards (it's hard for me to type on the 10" HP Minis at school because of that), small screens, and poor performance. (Whenever I have to use the ones at school, I think of how glad I am that I took the advice of forum members here and got a good 11" one instead of a 10" one.) That said, the 11" AMD APU ones are what netbooks really should be. I'm happy with my Lenovo x120e, and I can't see a tablet replacing it anytime soon. (unless those can run x86 Windows, eclipse, have a physical keyboard, etc... wait - I just described a regular laptop, didn't I?) I know the HP dm1z has also been popular, probably because it doesn't have the usual netbook issues. (it's similar to my x120e)

Yes, understood. The 11-inchers are popular for the reasons you describe. If I had hours and hours of straight typing to do, I'd not want to use a netbook for that. So I'd plug in a regular wireless keyboard and mouse. That said, I don't yet see the point of the mid-size netbooks (over 11 inches but less than 15.6", which is the size needed to have the dedicated numeric keypad, apparently).

[LiveBrianD]

brainout, on 03 November 2012 - 02:39 AM, said:

LiveBrianD, on 02 November 2012 - 07:52 PM, said:

brainout, on 02 November 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

I guess this guy didn't do much research prior to writing. So here's some help. Walmart is selling a TON of netbooks, has a complete Acer line. Problem is, they didn't configure them correctly; the ones which are configured correctly, are often sold out, online. But the people buying them, are still happy, if you read their reviews. Moreover, at Dell Auction where I've been all day (buying computers), the Inspiron 4010 netbooks with no OS are being snapped up for nearly $400. Those things don't even have gigabit Ethernet, are usually i3 or i5, and only 2.53 GHz.

Since Walmart doesn't configure the netbooks correctly, after MONTHS of trying to decide which one to buy, I left Walmart and surfed in Amazon. Just bought my second Acer 8.9" netbook there, two days ago. Same as my first one, Acer Aspire One A0A 150. Was a pistol to find it. Got it for $120 (with XP Pro newly reinstalled, per the user selling it) and snapped it up used -- as the OTHER Acers of the same model were selling for $300 or more. If you go to Amazon and search on 'netbooks', you'll find the cheapest one is about $340+, with the average being over $400+, all with only 1 GHZ-1.6 GHz. You can buy them with XP, Windows 7, or Windows 8 preinstalled.

Why $400+ average? Netbooks appeal far better than a tablet, and not only because they are cheaper. They are more useful. I've written before about how, when my desktop had died, I just hooked up the netbook and kept on going. My desktop died three times, the last one at the September corporate tax deadline; I just hooked up the external clone drive of the dead machine, and baby I was able to meet my 3pm deadline.

Can't do that, with a tablet. The 1 GHz processor (Intel Atom, in the Acer) didn't slow down the machine on the net, though I had expected it to. It performed as well as my Dell 8400 3.4 GHz Pentium 4, which is better than my HP 6400 2.66 GHz Intel Xeon workstation. The only drawback was that I had fewer USB ports (three, on an Acer) versus the desktop (typically 8-10). Netbooks have VGA monitor connection, 5-in-1 card readers, very nice machine. So you're not stuck with a small screen, if that bothers you. Screen clarity is wonderful, on the Acer. HDD is 160GB on the one I just bought; in newer Acers 320GB, and older versions 70GB. More than enough, since you have the SSD readers and USB ports.

The newer Acers often have HDMI ports, too. Same for the Dell and Asus and Gateway netbooks I saw sold at Walmart or Amazon.

Best of all, I can lie on my stomach with that little Acer in front of me -- I don't have to hold it -- and can angle the screen well and compute, surf, compose -- anything I can do on the desktop, for up to 9 hours without recharging. They are GREAT for travel (much preferred over my other laptops) and GREAT when you want to read Kindle stuff (I bought over 120 Kindle books for that reason). I have to spend a lot of time reading pension law, so they are wonderful for that, too. I can then edit, convert to Word or back to pdf, create legal briefs or other stuff for my clients. Just as I can on the desktop. I have an old dedicated numeric keypad which I can plug in, if I have to do a lot of actuarial number-crunching. So I don't need a bigger keyboard. But could hook one up, if desired.

Laptops and ultrabooks are too big, bulky. The netbook is a dream come true for a traveller who wants nearly-as-good-as-desktop working experience.

When playing movies on it, one needs to hook up external speakers, but the internal sound card is good, so not tinny. Absent external speakers of course, the sound is tinny; but more than loud enough for me to cook dinner while watching an episode of 24 (free in Amazon Instant Videos, for Amazon Prime Customers).

And somehow people know all this, for netbooks like Acer -- of 2008 vintage -- are still selling near their original prices or even better (my first one cost me $350 in 2008 at Walmart).

So you couldn't PAY me to use a tablet or an Ultrabook. I submit that the reason netbooks 'aren't selling' is that they're not being made. Savvy people who realize the tablet is way overrated, are buying netbooks. So their resale value remains high.

For me, a lot of the 10" netbooks are a pain to use - cramped keyboards (it's hard for me to type on the 10" HP Minis at school because of that), small screens, and poor performance. (Whenever I have to use the ones at school, I think of how glad I am that I took the advice of forum members here and got a good 11" one instead of a 10" one.) That said, the 11" AMD APU ones are what netbooks really should be. I'm happy with my Lenovo x120e, and I can't see a tablet replacing it anytime soon. (unless those can run x86 Windows, eclipse, have a physical keyboard, etc... wait - I just described a regular laptop, didn't I?) I know the HP dm1z has also been popular, probably because it doesn't have the usual netbook issues. (it's similar to my x120e)

Yes, understood. The 11-inchers are popular for the reasons you describe. If I had hours and hours of straight typing to do, I'd not want to use a netbook for that. So I'd plug in a regular wireless keyboard and mouse. That said, I don't yet see the point of the mid-size netbooks (over 11 inches but less than 15.6", which is the size needed to have the dedicated numeric keypad, apparently).

I wouldn't really call anything above 11.6" a netbook. To be honest, if my main machine were a laptop, it would be 13.3-14" - portable, but also plenty usable. I find 15.6" to be a bit big for a machine that's also supposed to be portable.

[MikeChambers]

Netbooks aren't dead. Yes, lots of people lost interest when they realized how truly slow the processor is. They are still adequate for many peoples' needs, though.

I'm not totally convinced that netbook sales will continue to drop, rather I expect the sales to become more steady in the near future and remain profitable for the manufacturers. The massive initial spike of netbook sales was from consumers who found the machines to be a perfect mix of convenience/portability and price.

Broke college students saw it as a cheap PC that's not a pain in the ass to haul around campus all day and was more than adequate for web browsing, report writing, studying, etc. all for around $200. It's also great for business travelers who need to keep in touch and online from everywhere. You get the idea.

I think the sales figures are actually just reflecting the fact that the people who they are perfect for are still using the netbooks they bought a couple years ago.

I got an EeePC at the tail end of 2011, and all-in-all I love it! I'm typing this post on it. Yes, it has it's flaws, but I knew that before I bought it. I plan on using this thing daily until it explodes.

Mine's got a built-in 3G cellular modem, which makes it awesome because I can take it anywhere I go and am still able to get broadband speeds from virtually any point in the country. On top of that, the battery STILL gets nearly 7 hours of usage time on a full charge... and that's even while using 3G the entire time.

Would a faster processor be nice? Yeah, definitely but when i need to do something that demands better performance (which isn't often) I just grab my Core 2 Duo laptop instead.

[MikeChambers]

Oh, and speaking of the Intel Atom's performance... mine has an N450 (1.66 GHz) ... I've done comparisons versus my OLD laptop. (like old, old as in 12-13 years old) It's a Thinkpad T23 (1.13 GHz Mobile Intel Pentium 3).

Performance on the Atom just barely wins out against the P3. I'm talking within 5-10% in most applications. Yes, the Atom is that slow.

[brainout]

MikeChambers, on 26 February 2013 - 03:55 PM, said:

Oh, and speaking of the Intel Atom's performance... mine has an N450 (1.66 GHz) ... I've done comparisons versus my OLD laptop. (like old, old as in 12-13 years old) It's a Thinkpad T23 (1.13 GHz Mobile Intel Pentium 3).

Performance on the Atom just barely wins out against the P3. I'm talking within 5-10% in most applications. Yes, the Atom is that slow.

Where do you find the performance slow? I can't tell the difference between the Atom, the i7 quad, the i5 2012, my Core 2 Duos, my Xeon quad, and my Pentium 4. Win7 makes some difference on the internet: it's smoother. But MS Office usage, DOS usage, plain old OS usage (i.e., in file management, with Explorer), all the same speed. Video rendering with Moviemaker or AVS4YOU is no faster on any machine versus any other, which surprises me a lot. The ability to render a high-bitrate video does matter (better if multi-core or more RAM), but the time spent is the same.

So maybe in the benchmark tests the speed is very different, but in actual usage, I don't see it. My little 8.9" netbook Acer Aspire One A0A 150 is still just as good, especially on the road.