We have a continuing argument in my household about whether the iPod Touch or my Asus Eee netbook is a more useful device. I find the netbook falls right in my sweet spot. I’m happily willing to carry it around everywhere, and in return it gives me all the functionality I need to work, play, or check the Web for info. (Minus the embedded mobile broadband, but that’s another story) The iPod Touch, on the other hand, can literally fit in a pocket, but is much more limited in functionality. Check email? Yes. Write a blog post? No.
While I love my netbook, however, other folks have reasonable complaints. And it appears that several companies are working hard to address them. First comes the price drop. Kevin Tofel reported yesterday that Sprint is now subsidizing the Compaq 1040DX netbook with a two-year contract commitment. Price? 99 cents. If you’re planning on paying for mobile broadband anyway, why not pick up a netbook to go with it? You could fill it with widgets and dedicate it as a media player, hand it over to your kid, or keep it in the car. Who cares if it doesn’t do everything you want it to do? It’s hard to argue with the under-a-buck price tag.
Second comes the feature tweaks. Several outlets have reported the news today that Sony is ready to enter the netbook market with the 10″ Vaio W due out next month. Its big differentiator? A resolution of 1,366-x-768 pixels instead of the more common 1,024-x-600 pixels. Screen real estate on most netbooks can be a serious issue, so the higher resolution is a nice improvement. Unfortunately it also comes with a (slightly) higher price. MSRP for the Vaio W is $499, whereas many netbooks today slide in somewhere between $250 and $400.
Whether a cheaper price or an improved feature set will increase the popularity of netbooks remains to be seen. What’s clear, though, is that we’ll witness a lot more experimentation in the space in the near future.
I’ll buy when they’re all shipping with Windows 7. XP is beat and Vista is a resource hog. (And I prefer Sony’s unique P form factor, which I’ve played on a couple of times, over the more traditional shape.)
I think there are reasons to now doubt the potential of the netbook market, http://bit.ly/1JuOlC.
Here’s the fake version that’s already hit the streets of Mainland China. It’s not quite as flash, but will no doubt please a lot of punters looking for discounted Sony branding:
http://www.shanzai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29:blag-sony-vaio-unboxed-or-is-this-the-real-thing&catid=3:notebooks&Itemid=5
I’m looking at the Dell Mini 9’s, but just like dave, i’m waiting until Windows 7 is available. Unfortunately, I have a few programs that only run on windows, so linux isn’t an option.