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Emerging Sub-Notebook Market

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nightelph

Member
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
As posted here: Overclockers.com

I side with Joe's impression on this. I've seen several articles recently discussing industry ballers being unhappy with this 'new' product. Why? Because this emerging market is going to cut heavily into their established laptop market segment. The truth as I see it is that there is a legitimate market for these things. It used to be niche, but its heading mainstream.
 
Could we define "sub notebook"

The nearest thing to $300 there is in the UK is a broken smart phone.
£300 would get you a dual core lap top
 
I'm really tempted by the EEE PC, it looks fantastic. Great battery life, small, and most importantly, light. The 16GB SSD 900 model is going for $400 which is great IMO. The 901 is a bit pricier but there are no big improvements that force you to spring for it unless you need the extra doodads. I might go for the EEE 1000 though because the screen is bigger, the keyboard is bigger, and the SSD is 40GB! :D

Very cool stuff.
 
I could see the sub notebook market moving mainstream quickly. I would probably get one as an "on the road" alternative to my 15.4 inch HP notebook if it werent for lack of wifi coverage in my amish neighborhood. I like small and portable but when Im out and traveling and cant access the internet at least want to be able to play the couple of games that I play. Other than that an EEEPC would cover all of my needs, such as basic photoshop editing, gps nav, web browsing, and documentation.
 
This market needs a much better operating system first imo.

Linux or Windows XP...neither are meant for this target marketplace. First time PC users buying these laptops do not want to deal with Linux and Windows XP is ok, but still too heavy imo.

Microsoft just refuses to make a custom lightweight OS.

I like the idea, but you can get an Apple 3G Iphone for less money that will do almost everything that a sub notebook can do.

Smart phones are better atm than sub notebooks to me. The difference in features between a good smart phone and a sub notebook are not enough to justify going to the sub notebook.
 
The big companies might just finally have to start working together to design some more formfactors for laptops and umpc/netbook, VIA already made a start with their VIA openbook formfactor. This should cut the cost and create a similar market as computers.

Linux is a good enough OS for umpc's. People dont want to deal with the OS, so it doesnt matter how difficult it is beneath the hood. If they screw things up, do a clean install. This clean install will probably be called hard reset to take away the sound of the lenghty, frightening sound of an install.

One thing i see happening is the disappearance of the touchpad in exchange for a touchscreen. Couple the introduction of mouse gestures (hand/finger signs(most likely the marketing term)) to it. Possible multi-touch will make even nicer to work with but i don't see the immediate use except for resizing things. But what to do with the free space below the keyboard that will then be available....

The big companies have the luxury to wait i guess. The can miss the first generation, maybe 2nd, then throw money at it, cut some jobs and use the big name to get back in the game.
 
Smart phones are better atm than sub notebooks to me. The difference in features between a good smart phone and a sub notebook are not enough to justify going to the sub notebook.

The only issue with smart phones and the general public is that most folks are unwilling to carry around what they consider a "large and heavy" phone all day, every day. The ascendancy of phones like the KRZR is testimony to the popularity of very small, very light phones.

A $300 laptop, however, is a very attractive proposition, even if it never leaves the house, which is the most likely scenario for most 6-packs.
 
Microsoft just refuses to make a custom lightweight OS.
I like the idea, but you can get an Apple 3G Iphone for less money that will do almost everything that a sub notebook can do.
Smart phones are better atm than sub notebooks to me. The difference in features between a good smart phone and a sub notebook are not enough to justify going to the sub notebook.

Microsoft does have a custom lightweight OS, its called Windows Mobile 7. If that doesn't scale well with a little more power, then perhaps MS does need to release a 'mid-range' mobile OS. Wait where did windows CE go? The last I saw that was on a Dreamcast! Personally, I've got an iPhone 3G, thats my mobile. And yet, Apple has freakin' OSX on it.

The only issue with smart phones and the general public is that most folks are unwilling to carry around what they consider a "large and heavy" phone all day, every day.

I find that with falling device costs, more and more people are overlooking the extra bulk. But more importantly, the high monthly service cost is a deciding factor in a smart phone purchase.
 
I find that with falling device costs, more and more people are overlooking the extra bulk. But more importantly, the high monthly service cost is a deciding factor in a smart phone purchase.

Agree on that point, but also need to point out that broadband cards for laptops are just as expensive. So if portability and internet are required then the smartphone is still financially viable.

As much as I like my Treo I would never surf with it. Even an iPhone's screen is too small for my tastes. These small form laptops are probably the smallest I would attempt internet browsing. And yes, my eyes are fine.

The prices on these smaller laptops are right and having XP preloaded would be a nice touch (nothing against Linux, but familiarity reigns supreme for ease). I can see why the manufacturers are nervous. At one point the smaller Sony Vaio laptops were selling for twice the price, now you can get something around the same size for 1/5 those prices with just slightly slower performance.
 
Just ordered an Asus EEE 1000, can't wait :D. This should be the perfect laptop for carrying around all day to check e-mails, chat, browse the web, tweak code on, etc. Light, small, power efficient, woot!
 
A smartphone form factor wins when even the ease of portability of a subnote fails. Hey, sometimes you don't want carry anything extra that can't go in a pocket.

If the manufacturers are nervous now (understandably), just wait till ASUS and everone else start dropping in Dual-Core Atom procs in these things. We may find the subnote market stealing an enormous share of college freshman laptop sales.
 
We may find the subnote market stealing an enormous share of college freshman laptop sales.

That's a good point. There are some college kids that still want to game and such but they might already have a xbox or ps3. A ~$300 notebook that is small and convenient to take to class, killer on battery life, and can still surf the web, check emails, and right reports and papers with is more then doable. Personally if I were in class all day I would want smaller and functional that I could write papers and stuff with on the fly. And great battery performance that I could go sit in a coffee ship all day and study and write a report on would be a great plus.
 
I will admit, these are the perfect units for car OBDII diagnostic readers/ tuners.
 
I will admit, these are the perfect units for car OBDII diagnostic readers/ tuners.

and for those switching old CARB engines to TBI/EFI. another place for these would be for fully featured radios with dvd/blueray playback... basicly tring to make the radios in cards more open source then manufacture specific. Like BWM for instance, i got a 2000 540i. if i removed the radio i lose being able to get calculated MPG, being able to use cruise control, the volume control on the wheel.

i wouldnt use one for a ODBII on a BWM, peak code reader is where its at. as the bmw ECU puts out more detailed error codes then that from the OBDII read out. i mean hell the car tells you when its time to replace the brakes from the brake wear sensor.
 
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I jumped on the sub-notebook bandwagon because of the desire/need for ultra-portability. I have an eeePC and love it to pieces. It's a very versatile hardware platform, Linux/FreeBSD & xp work well on this lappy.
 
Speaking of using an ultra-mobile for automotive purposes: Theres an awesome dyno tool for the iPhone called Dynolicious.

05_dynolicious.png
06_dynolicious.png


This is beyond cool!
 
Who the heck is running ASUS!? They now have a crapload of models. The newest is the 701SD, I believe. I mean seriously, they've had almost a dozen models!
 
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