Acer still believes in netbooks for some reason
Summary: Other manufacturers have been bailing out of the once-hot market, but Acer vows to keep making the little laptops.
You may have noticed that tablets have pretty much killed the market for netbooks. Once about 20 percent of the laptop market, the small and cheap notebooks now constitute less than 10 percent of portable sales.
That's led companies like Dell and Lenovo to abandon the category, and even Asus, which once dominated the segment, has ditched notebooks for tablets of varying flavors. And Google's attempt to promote its Chromebook platform has largely been a dud. But none of this seems to have deterred Acer, which refuses to stop producing netbooks.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Acer chairman and CEO J.T. Wang claims that netbooks aren't dead, and vows to continue producing them even though Asustek CEO Jerry Shen believes the netbook category will expire in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Why is Acer staking a stand on netbooks? Wang says that the devices are still selling well in developing nations, though he points out that sales in developed nations match those in developing nations. While there is a certain logic that a cheaper system might still have legs in developing economies, smaller tablets now cost less than netbooks, provide many of the same features, and are frankly far sexier products. (Of course, Acer hasn't made a huge splash in the tablet world, so it's not exactly gaining huge dividends from that hot category.) And as Intel continues to work with its hardware partners to lower the prices of Ultrabooks, those systems will chip away at whatever market share netbooks still have.
Do you agree that Acer shouldn't give up on netbooks? Or have tablets killed the category? Let us know in the Talkback section below.
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Talkback
Maybe for niche purposes
I'm such a niche
Okay. I admit not too many people need to do stuff like that. But this is where a netbook excels, especially one with an SSD. No moving parts! Small enough to fit into a small backpack. Light enough so that when you do drop it, the security tether won't rip out. I have yet to find a security tether on a tablet.
But yeah. Tower climbers are a niche market for sure.
More than nice
Good luck, Tablets of the World, getting to that price level: you'll need it.
Imagine if Acer could fit a touch screen too... It'd still be a fully functional Win 8 experience for around $300.
And if Acer won't for fear of eating into their own tablet play, then others surely will.
Idiots still believe in tablets for some reason
"Smaller tablets now cost less than netbooks"? Really? A midrange Acer Aspire One costs around $300. Few tablets cost much less than that (the iPad certainly doesn't), and any tablet on the market for less than that is usually such a tiny, hobbled piece of trash that it's not worth the plastic it's packaged in.
"[Tablets] provide many of the same features." That's true. However, what kind of incentive is that? "Buy a tablet instead of a netbook, because a tablet does some of what a netbook does." Doesn't seem like a good marketing line to me. I'd rather get a device that does ALL of what I want to do, rather than something that does only some of what I want to do.
"...and are frankly far sexier products." Does anyone still take this idea seriously? Does anyone honestly believe that you can sustain a market based on "sexy" products? Tablets are hot now and certainly serve a niche application, but serious users have already gotten tired of typing on a glass screen that covers up half of the display and offers no tactile feedback. In a few years when the tablet fad subsides, people will still be buying little laptops that provide a real keyboard and a screen that's big enough to have a couple of windows open but small enough to be light and portable. Anyone who thinks that portable device with physical keyboards are the past might want to stop watching advertisements for a moment and look at what real people are actually doing.
Well, then
Change is faster than you think
Runs reasonably fast for most portable needs, allowed my to download and install a better virtual keyboard than factory, battery last 5 hours even watching The Daily Show (when I'm catching up for the month).
More portable, just as good as my previous Asus netbook. All for the massive cost of 93 USD (with free shipping to boot). No buyers regret here.
Love My Netbook
My techs also find netbooks quite handy in the field. Need to check a network outlet's connectivity? Or maybe connect directly to a switch to configure it? Our netbooks with their old-fashioned copper Ethernet connections allow it.
I do enjoy playing games and watching movies on my tablet, though.
Windows 8 tablets will kill of any need for netbooks
I don't think so.
No
So for running real Windows applications at very affordable and portable price, netbooks and small laptops slightly bigger than netbooks are still the best way.
And no doubt that when Windows 8 comes out some of these netbooks/small laptops will add touch capability for a bit more money and still be affordable and be the best of both worlds!
Good for Acer
And can do more than that
Netbooks...not a gaming problem
Much of the average consumers understands that their cheap netbooks shouldn't be used for gaming, unless they bought it with the proper hardware setup.
They do have some value
Duh
3D humor
Other Factors
Ultrabooks starting to come down in price is a bigger threat to the netbook market than tablets ever would be. It's true that some people can do all they want on a tablet. That fact reduces the size of the netbook market (and the size of the laptop market and the desktop market to varying degrees), but it doesn't eliminate the market altogether. There are still a lot of things that a netbook is better for than a tablet is.
A tablet can't even temporarily replace my laptop. A netbook can be a reasonable replacement for a number of uses when I want something smaller and lighter than my desktop replacement class laptop (17 inch and fairly power hungry).
counter point
More Like an Expansion
I certainly agree with your general point, and I certainly don't mean to say that the netbook market will go away. In fact, perhaps it would be more accurate to say that there is a significant market for $300 or less netbooks rather than going so low as $250. It depends on at what price people generally start to hesitate rather than treating it almost as an impulse purchase.
My Experience
Although I really like the Playbook, during a sober moment I realized that I had spent more on the Playbook/keyboard than my last Netbook, an Aspire 1. The netbook has much more expandability and harddisk and applications. I would never afford an iPad so forget that argument.
Bottom line, I'm looking to get a newer netbook with a N570 or N2600 processor rather than the N270 in mine. I think that will do me just fine. And probably still cheaper than a tablet...
I am in the Netbook market. I've got a EEEpc, a HP Mini10, and the Aspire. The size and features suit my work, on the road support of a large enterprise system. The desktop software runs on the Netbook fine. If it just get 3 months use out of it before losing or breaking it I'm good. Although I still have all 3 and they all work like brand new.
I am the same person as someone in the UltraBook market but the price is not low enough to justify losing/breaking it. I'm dependent on network speed, not cpu speed.
I'm an Acer customer three times over so I'm happy they are still pursuing the netbook market.