Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell took some serious swipes at netbooks in a speech Tuesday to the Churchill Club in San Jose, Calif. The question is whether he really doesn’t believe in the category, or just doesn’t believe in it as it exists today.
The Register quoted Dell as saying that a purchase could lead to a fast case of buyer’s remorse. “If you take a user who’s used to a 14- or 15-inch notebook and you say, ‘Here’s a 10-inch netbook,’ they’re gonna say, ‘Hey, this is so fantastic. It’s so cute. It’s so light. I love it,'” Dell said. “But about 36 hours later they’re saying, ‘The screen’s gonna have to go. Give me my 15-inch screen back.'”
The Threat From Netbooks
Observers had differing views on what was behind Dell’s comments.
John Jacobs, director of notebook market research for DisplaySearch, painted a picture of a company facing difficult choices in how it approaches the category.
A study he wrote that was released last week suggested the danger netbooks represent. The research showed that the devices are increasing their market share in the overall notebook category. However, because they are cheaper than ful-fledged notebooks, they are depressing the category’s revenue.
With this as background, Jacobs said that pushing netbooks could create problems with three significant constituencies: Customers, Intel and Microsoft.
He said research by DisplaySearch’s parent, the NPD Group, indicate that a significant portion of people who claim to understand the limitations of today’s netbooks still report disappointment with their performance. That unhappiness, Jacobs said, will grow if the most obvious approach — bolting bigger displays onto the same hardware and software packages — is taken.
“Even if you take the netbooks of today and give it a better display, that’s only a piece of the puzzle,” Jacobs said.
Keeping Profits Clear
Intel and Microsoft…