Iria

Despite creating a line of CPUs seemingly targeted precisely for the netbook market, the Atom, Intel seems as though it just might be having second thoughts.
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Source: Tech-Ex

OldBuzzard

Translation:

Dang, we didn't think they woud sell that well, and didn't use our normal "Rape the Consumer" pricing on it. Go out and buy a full sized Lappy with the over-priced CPU to help our profits.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

IvanV

I'm not so sure, considering that the cheapest full-sized (15.4") laptops come at very similar prices to the Atom based ones. They are twice the weight, but their screens have twice the area, keyboards are normal and they have twice the performance, or more, and most netbooks have poor authonomy as well. What Intel has misjudged is how many poor and cheap people are there in the US and western Europe.

A coworker of mine has an Eee. He loved it and carried it around with him all the time, but in my eyes, the usage pattern was similar to that of an advanced flash drive. And, surely enough, he no longer carries it around, but I see that he's got a USB drive instead.

That said, the models with big battery still tempt me a little, I'd say that they are neat for when you're going out of town if you're not too demanding, but again, I don't go out of town that much.

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Feed the porkers and don't touch the buttons!

ExitiosuS

The prices of laptops these days are so cheap... a good DV5 with a GeForce 9600 will only set you back 1k -- one of these, with windows XP, will set you back 500. One is good, the other is simply for web browsing. For web browsing, I'd just use my iPhone anyway. For all other uses, I'd be happy to use my DV5.

I don't know, I don't think Intel's profit margin drops with these laptops *that* much so as to say that Intel is only saying it because they're getting less $$$... but wow, does the performance and utility ever drop.

I had to use one of these netbooks while my laptop was in the shop (the hard drive died and was under warranty, so I had to wait the 2 days for it ><) and omg, are those things ever awful. I use my laptop full time, so getting "used" to the small screen was hell. It gave me a crick in my neck and I was constantly leaning closer to the screen than I ever would.

I hated the experience...

Necrosis

I purchased one of the Dell units for a friend, and once tweaked it worked rather well.

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ET3D

I'd say that Netbooks are for people who really need the portability, and have needs which fit them.

I have a subnotebook, which is similar to a netbook only a lot more expensive (I bought it before the netbook craze). I bought it because I did a lot of commuting by bus and wanted something small and portable on which I could write. Having gone through a Psion 5mx and a Handheld PC, the subnotebook (a Fujitsu P1510D) was the next step up. While I don't write these days, I still use the P1510D for programming, and when travelling abroad (which I also do less these days).

It is, as Intel says, not something you'd use as your main computing platform. I have a desktop for this. However, for my mobile platform I'm not willing to put up with anything as big as a full laptop.

I'd say that netbooks are something like the Wii. Part of the reason to buy a netbook is just the coolness for money it provides. The other part is that there really is something there that a lot of people want, and a lot of other people don't get.