back to article 2012: The year that netbooks DIED

Netbooks – those compact, underpowered, inexpensive notebook PCs once hailed as the future of mobile computing – are set to disappear from retailer shelves in 2013, as the last remaining manufacturers of the devices prepare to exit the market. According to Taiwanese tech news site DigiTimes, Acer and Asus are the only two …

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        1. JDX Gold badge

          @LarsG

          You could walk into a job as a comedy writer with that kind of material. Sadly, only at BBC3.

        2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Certianly have a use...

          Lets just say he is a bit of a MSFT fanboy - he did replace his iPhone with a WinPhone

          On the plus side online managed Sharepoint everything really really works well for very little money.

      1. AJ MacLeod

        Re: Certainly have a use...

        I've been using an original HP mini for just this purpose (highly portable network troubleshooter / configuration tool) for several years now and it's been superb.

        All the connectivity you could want, very, very good keyboard (the trackpad buttons looked like they might be a problem but actually have been fine), high-res screen, plenty of RAM and all encased with a nice solid metal top (which has gathered quite a few dents over the years.) The only downside is the somewhat glacial C3 CPU.

        Sadly it recently got semi-immersed in neat coolant / anti-freeze which has made the Ethernet port unreliable, though with a proper cleaning (that stuff is incredibly difficult to dry out with normal amounts of heat) I'm hopeful it will come back to life.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Certainly have a use...

      I used my Asus 1000HE yesterday to go and sort out a network that was causing problems.

      It is quite a handy piece of equipment that cannot be replaced easily with a tablet without add-ons, which IMO defeat any advantage they may have..

      Mine has a faster larger hard drive than the original, is slightly overclocked and has 2GB of RAM.

      It has Debian, Backtrack and XP Pro on it making it pretty flexible for field work.

      It is not suited to replace a desktop, full spec. laptop or a media centre, but for me a lot of the time it fills a niche that the others do not.

      If mine was to die today, I guess I'd probably replace it with a small screen laptop.

  1. Jerry
    WTF?

    Netbooks are the perfect travel device

    My household has three units, two Toshiba NB-550D and an Acer netbook (only because we couldn't get the Toshiba).

    For travel they absolutely ideal. With the Toshibas at least you can plug the unit into your hotel HDMI screen and watch movies in full HD 1080p. Add a small wireless mouse and they are perfect for just about any task (the keyboard is fine even for my big fingers).

    We all have larger older laptops but wouldn't dream of taking them on any trips. Tablets are not an option because the screen is all you get. No expansion to a monitor.

    I think the main appeal of the tablet is the touch interface. Wouldn't it have been so much easier to release a version of a nettop with integral touch-screen?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Netbooks are the perfect travel device

      Yup, they are starting to do that. Probably the next computing device I buy will be one of those or a new (smart???)phone.

    2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Linux

      Re: Netbooks are the perfect travel device

      There are tablets that can drive an external TV/Monitor available now. The Kindle Fire HD is just one.

      I use mine for exactly this purpose when I'm on the road.

    3. dssf

      Re: Netbooks are the perfect travel device

      Nobody? Well, I am in the minority. I traveled to Asia with THREE laptops: two 17" and one 15" the 15" being the newest. I use them for CAD mostly, and when I do word processing of long documents, the 17" screens are more useful than the 15". But, in full disclosure, I actually only regularly used ONE, the 15", but one 17" stayed bagged up for months. The other 17" only got fired up to check some old files I had not transferred.

      The WEIGHT is the biggest drag. And, the accessories for each weigh in second. Planes are tighter now than I seem to recall 8 years ago, and the Air Canada 767 tightness nixed my use of even my 15". Another thing that nixed my using my 15" was that my mouse is bluetooth. Verbotten in-flight are bluetooth and wifi. :-( My Galaxy Tab was low on juice, and so I charged it via the back-of-headrest 3-pole outlet, and then watched The Bourne Legacy and then slept the rest of the way.

      I saw people on the plane using iPads and Galay or other tablets, and they preferred those to the "in-flight entertainment".

      If 15" and 17" laptops could in the next 3 years stay at their current pricing, but go thinner, lighter, and sport longer-lived batteries, it might slow the uptake of tablets for some users.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        Re: Netbooks are the perfect travel device

        "Nobody? Well, I am in the minority"

        Damn right you are, why not buy a more powerful laptop to start with and, if really required, either dual boot or carry a spare bootable HD.

        Why on gods earth you feel the need to carry 3 lappies is beyond me.....

        "but one 17" stayed bagged up for months" which proves my point...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Headmaster

          Re: Netbooks are the perfect travel device

          You can even get Dual screen laptops if your CAD requires the extra real estate.

        2. dssf

          Re: Netbooks are the perfect travel device

          I already partly explained that.

          Also, it should be obvious if you really are a computer user of more than a few years that when doing CAD, it is wholly convenient to be able to open multiple instances of an app not just on one machine, but on as many as you have a license for if the need is to use a machine as a reference. Also, some apps are not worth actually reacquiring a license for, but the contenet generated in them is. Hence, again, a reference machine. Any new machine can bugger up and die, and it has happened to me at least twice. It is a crippling event to have working drives, but a dead machine.

          Why do you assume that I have whatever runes or magical powers you might have? Great for you, and I do applaud you if you have that band with and can cast spells or draw upon deep powers of recollection. Some of us do not, and it is justt not an option to leave a machine 6,000 miles behind, or even to buy a new one at the destination.

          Also, some VERSIONS of the apps I run won't run on the new machine, and are not worth the hassle to try to virtualize in the cramped disk space I have. Plus, I tend to do some amount of troubleshooting for some maritime related apps, and if I can avoid corrupting or changing the OS or other versioon underneath them, then my comments to developers are not moving the goal posts or changing the environment on them. And, haven't you experienced the frustration with having to too many times Alt+Tab just to look at something? Sometimes, it is easier to just run two laptops side-by-side. Before my trip, I had 3 side-by-side, and planned on a much longer-than-8-months trip, and figured on replicating my before-travel workbench environment. It just happened to turn out that my main laptop is still working just fine, was not stolen, and that all the files i DID transfer were good enough. But, in IT, in documentation, in CAD, what are we if we do not plan for redundancy or disaster?

          (I guess now had I written all that out, i could have averted the down vote, but then again, had I included it, I'd have gotten one for being too lengthy. Or, for bringing up fully-fledged laptops, despite others broaching non-Netbooks. Not trying to spar with you, mind you... )

          Netbooks are great -- for those who need them. They are great for some of my Korean friends who are highly accustomed to carrying LIGHTWEIGHT devices. One was aghast in 2008 when he saw my 17" Gateway, referring to it as "nanjango", or "refrigerator" in Korean. But, after I pointed out that I was editing multiple docs, doing how-tos, and using multiple CAD or CAD-like systems, he didn't laugh as much anymore. Another Korean friend had one Netbook stolen from him when his car was broken into. He went out and replaced it with yet another Netbook, for cost , size, weight, and battery charge duration reasons. But, whenever I had to help him with his papers, it was murder on me because for me Netbooks FEEL too small, and some of the keys are in confusing locations... It is bad enough dealing with full-sized laptops never having keys consistently in the same place...

          Segue here: (one reason why one laptop is less used, but 17" Gateway display aspect ration is too square, the battery is shot, and RAM is maxed at 2GB. The 17" HP has a NICE aspect ratio, but the keys are too slick and snag on my sleeves, and snag my wrist hair (very little, but it hurts like a bitch when that laptop snags my arm hair), and the screen is too reflectiive, it is as noisy as a racing engine, and is almost 8lbs, but both STILL are useful as reference machines for drawings that cannot be or are best not transferred, and/or because I need to preserve their state based on the limitations of the machines and the versions of the software versions....). End Segue

          ... So, sometimes, when time was not an issue, I had him micro-usb me a file, then we'd edit it on my machine, then put it back on his. I cannot type quickly enough on a Netbook (well, not his at least). But, it was quite enviable to see how LONG his netbook lasted. I know: smaller screeen, fewer energy vampires, tightly-integrated MS-battery vendor algorithms....)

          I really do hope you understand now why I had taken three machines. If you still cannot, then so be it. We probably just are using machines in different contexts.

          Cheers!

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Netbooks are the perfect travel device

      "Tablets are not an option because the screen is all you get. No expansion to a monitor."

      Unless I've misunderstood you I have an 18 month old ASUS TF-101 tablet, it's now old by today's standards but it's got a standard mini-HDMI output socket on the side.

  2. bwalzer

    A narrow definition of "netbook"

    So a netbook needs to have an x86 processor in it? Chinese makers are churning out 7" ARM based devices running Android for around $60US. How are those not netbooks?

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: A narrow definition of "netbook"

      I believe they should be classed as netbooks (Assuming you means the ARM devices with a dedicated keyboard attached)

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tablets with keyboards

    Just to clarify, how easy is it to knock out an email on a tablet with keyboard while standing on a train and thus holding the device in your off-hand? That's the kind of thing netbooks were good for in my experience. I have a bad feeling the tablet equivalent wouldn't be as easy to set up on something other than a flat surface.

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

      Re: Tablets with keyboards

      Depends how strong the clips are, seen some of our work smaller notebooks hinges took a beating (Although staff lugging holding them by the screen >_> didnt help and using the keyboard and screen bit as a file-o-fax), to me they dont look that strong.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tablet plus bluetooth keyboard is the way forward as you get the best of both worlds. Netbooks were cheap and if we are being honest pretty nasty - slow and these days if you need that level of portability you would be better off with something like a Macbook Air / ultra notebook which at least is fast enough. If you do not need the portability you may as well get one of the (many) normal notebooks.

    1. Raumkraut

      > these days if you need that level of portability you would be better off with something like a Macbook Air / ultra notebook

      For the price of a netbook, though? You're more likely to find yourself with a box of spuds.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Windows

        I truely hope

        you're not trying to insinuate that fanbois are in any way stupid or gullible enough to fall for that old trick..

        Oh, hang on, being a fanbois proves just how gullible they already are...

        Icon 'cos i am.....

    2. MacGyver
      Devil

      I'm all for it, if it has an x86 processor and at least 768 vertical resolution, if not, it's basically a big broken phone. I want choices in my "computer replacement" and a non-x86 CPU limits my choices of not only OS but of Apps compiled to run on it. Give me a Surface tablet with an x86 CPU, the cool little folding keyboard, and the ability to load whatever OS I want on it, and I'm sold, otherwise its just a big awkward broken phone.

    3. Julian Bond
      Facepalm

      Recreate the netbook?

      Are people still self-assembling laptops at the start of meetings? By the time you've got the iPad, psu, keyboard, mouse, stand, iphone, out of the backpack and plugged everything together so you can use cut down "App" versions of your desktop/laptop programs, wouldn't it have been easier to just open a small laptop?

      Rather than netbooks, or ultrabooks, or pads with add ons (or high end desktop replacements), I'm sure there's still a market for a small, full function laptop focused on portability at a reasonable price. Can we just get back to that please, rather than continually trying to stretch the laptop away from it's sweet spot.

  5. Dr Trevor Marshall
    FAIL

    My four Lenovo S10 are ideal for travel -- and around-the-house

    My main Lenovo S10 is perfect for travel. Small, light, and dare I say - disposable - (easily replaced if stolen or seized by customs). Its new SSD makes it run beautifully fast . Its new USB3 expresscard makes it really fast to external mass storage. Another S10 is used to monitor the IP-based security system around our house. One is currently used to log output from battery chargers and miscellaneous test equipment. They are reliable, and perfectly capable of acting as functional backup to my quad-core desktops. If I need a better monitor or keyboard, I have only to connect them to the S10 I/O... But I don't use them for writing books...

    An Ultrabook? With a Core 3? what does that offer me?

    Oh - the S10 all are running Windoze XP. I initially equipped them with a dual-boot to Linux, but ended up rarely using that capability... And now I suppose you are going to tell me that a decades worth of XP app development is going to instantly vanish in 2014 ???

  6. John Fairhurst

    Perfect Net Books

    I've an Asus eEe along with a standard notebook and a variety of desktops. The netbook gets used on bus or train journies so it's been subject to quite a bit of battering. It mainly gets used for word processing whilst on the use and I don't notice the lack of power re games (rather boringly, I don't generally play them :-/).

    I've used it to play streamed TV shows and radios and while the speakers are awful, the sound itself is actually quite good (through earphones). Given the fact that even CD/DVD installations are quite rare these days, the lack of a DVD player hasn't been a problem.

    1. alpine

      Re: Perfect Net Books

      Yes, still using my perfect Netbook daily, a Dell Mini 10v with the 1366x768 HD screen option, now running Win 7 Pro, full Aero with a 120GB SS disk. And built in DVB TV. The only addition has been a bluetooth mouse. Runs Office 2000 perfectly well and has a good keyboard. What more can be asked?. I'm sure I'll keep it forever!

  7. msage
    Joke

    Sure the Asus EEE PC girl should have made an appearance on this article... I am disgusted!

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
      Happy

      Bet you're from Tunbridge Wells too.

    2. Simon Harris
      Happy

      Definitely a retrospective article on Asus EEE girls* is needed!

      * girls in the plural - if I remember rightly there was the original blonde beach girl and later on the brunette.

  8. Jean Le PHARMACIEN
    Thumb Up

    NetBooks are dead! Long live the netBook!

    As posted by others, these are great devices if you have the right one and the 'limitations' are the reasons why you bought one. I have an HP2140 - near full size keyboard; it's quick enough (max RAM + Xubuntu); excellant for light internet use on the go/writing emails (much easier to write larger emails with a keyboard); watch films whilst on holiday (useful to have ability to link t a larger monitor albeit VGA); decent batery life (4-6hrs depending on task). I would never use or carry a laptop and an ultrabook is too over-specced/xpensive for my needs. The netBook is a perfect smartphone companion when travelling

  9. Mark Wilson

    Still using a 701

    I have two of the original 701s and one of them is still in use as a fileserver on my home network. Most of the time it just sits there consuming very little power allowing the other machines in the house to drag files off the bank of external drives. It does an admiral job too.

    Yes there are better options available but these cost nothing as a school I used to do work for gave me them along with a BBC Master which was about to be scrapped.

    1. Jean Le PHARMACIEN
      Coat

      Re: Still using a 701

      From the deck of HMS Ramilies; I salute you sir!

      I think you mean 'admirable'

      Collects coat........

  10. Tommy Pock
    Megaphone

    This has to stop.

    Laptops are called laptops, not notebooks. Notebooks are called notebooks - books you put notes in.

    Also, while I'm on the subject, when was the last time you played a game on a video? Computers games are called computer games; only Telly Addicts and Knightmare (VHS) were 'videogames'.

    Can we have some standards, please? We're not Americans.

    1. elaar

      Re: This has to stop.

      "Videogame" is a generic term for a game played on a "video device" (typically on a monitor). Arcade games were called Videogames even before the widespread adoption of VHS.

      Whilst "Computer Games" sounds more appropriate in certain circumstances, it doesn't fit particularly well with Arcade/Console/handheld games. Nintendo went to great lengths to market the NES as an entertainment system, and not as a computer for example.

      "We're not Americans" - In this instance it seems as if we are, if we insist on creating a new name for something just for the sake of it.

  11. Avatar of They
    Unhappy

    Shame.

    I like my asus eee 1000, the one with the 40GB SSD, first gen thingy. With an added 1GB of RAM.

    Runs ubuntu 11.10 and windows xp dual boot fine, even plays things like homeworld & homeworld 2, the original C&C and diablo fine. And I can output via the VGA adaptor to a projector for meetings.

    Runs office 2003 fine and has enough ooompf to watch films. I have since got the transformer prime but that just isn't a replacement, it needs the internet all the time and the apps are just not mature enough to replace office with multi tasking etc.

    I might have to buy a replacement when the last prices start to appear.

  12. tempemeaty

    My netbook by Asus never agreed to become extinct

    Some times when you're on the go and need a key board the notebooks are just to large for it. Then the tablets don't have the key board you need. Best thing that ever happened in computing was a way to have my notebook functions and software in a package that isn't a clumsy in the way size. I mourn the fact I may not be able to get another netbook. These things rock!

    1. nematoad

      Re: My netbook by Asus never agreed to become extinct

      You know, reading through this thread a thought occurs to me.

      As many have said, netbooks are ideal for use when traveling, small and light I find mine ideal to use in an aircraft. As I invariably travel cattle class I wonder how those people talking about using their 15" or 17" laptops get on. They must be traveling business or first class, 'cos when I wedge myself onto the shelf the airline laughing calls a "seat" there is not much room to exhale let alone open up a 17" laptop. Unless that is they have a high aspect ration machine with a very wide screen, but then surely that would get in the way of the person sitting next to them.

  13. Nick Roberts

    I've always been a fan of the small form factor laptop, and my current Netbook has served me well in this niche - I bought it before Ultrabooks existed, and it gives me a small machine I can do image editing on in the field. It's obviously a bit slow, but it has a screen capable of running the software I need, a processor that's just about quick enough, and I've replaced the HD and maxed out the RAM at a massive 2GB - but it works. Will I miss the Netbook format? No, the Ultrabook was always closer to what I wanted.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Price

    There's a lot you can do with a netbook and it makes a handy tool or portable notebook (for certain uses). I appreciate mine for what it can do but have no illusions about its capabilities : it is not a small notebook, but a limited notebook.

    Given their limitations, netbooks should have declined in price to between £100 and £150, but they are still generally being pushed at the £200+ level, so inevitably their sales have declined as notebooks have come down in price.

    Shame, really, but I'll be keeping an eye out for a replacement if the prices do drop as they should.

    1. Jonathon Green
      Thumb Up

      Re: Price

      You get an upvote for that. For me the compelling thing about Netbooks is that they can be treated almost as disposable and hence go to places and situations you wouldn't dream of taking an expensive Ultrabook or Macbook Air (particularly if we're talking of your own kit bought out of your own budget) - as an exampe I was always perfectly sanguine about chucking an Asus Eee in the tankbag of a motorcycle (and leaving it there as I refuelled either the bike or myself) and perfectly at ease with paying for replacement if it got nicked or fell out under a bus (don't laugh, this actually happened to me!).

      If something's small and light enough for me to take anywhere and use everywhere then that's what I want to do with it, this carries a risk potential that (for me at least) doesn't sit comfortably with the price tags on the current crop of Ultrabooks and tablets (I'm posting this from an iPad by the way), particularly inexpensive tablets, don't offer the functionality I get from a Netbook with it's (albeit cramped) physical keyboard and range of standard applications...

    2. justincormack
      Linux

      surely?

      Somehow the prices managed to go up I think. My Eee cost around £135 from memory and used it for many years. £200+ was ridiculous. I think that was to pay the Windows tax plus the higher specs Windows needed. If only the Linux distros they shipped with hadnt been so bad, as most people do not know how to install Ubuntu or whatever to make them work.

  15. pierce

    re: premium Ultrabooks, the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbons are 1600x900 in 14",

    there are Acer Aspire S7 11.6" models with full 1920x1080 HD video. Samsung and Asus have similar ultrabooks.

    these start around $1100 and up.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      11.6? Too big.

      1. Jean Le PHARMACIEN

        Having a work-issued 11.6in ; I'll second that (from my 10in 2140)

  16. Chloe Cresswell Silver badge

    Size

    I am also one of the people who finds a netbook the perfect size for trouble shooting.

    When someone shows me an ultrabook or laptop that I can put in my handbag, I'll replace it.

    I don't want to carry 2 bags, and my aspire1 and it's PSU both fit in with all my normal handbag stuff. If I need more power I'll carry my L and SL series thinkpads, but it's always a size/weight issue, the netbook travels with me all the time.

    Tablets don't have any apeal for me. I haven't seen one that fills my requirements (ethernet, rs-232, keyboard, etc..)

  17. Corborg

    Useful

    Netbook for me is used when I go on holiday and don't want to take an expensive device with features I don't need. I use it to dump digi photos on to from the SLR and then pop it back in the hotel room safe. Maybe check the email once in a while. I'm sure it will be used in this way until it pops.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Netbooks are proper computers, tablets are not.

    True, netbooks had slow CPUs, but they were small and light enough to fit in a narrow Deuter sport back pack, and I upgraded mine with a 320GB 2.5" hard disks, and 2GB RAM, so it can still do a lot more than any tablet currently can, and I still use it occasionally to drive external monitors.

    I had a full development environment, a database server, and VirtualBox running on my netbook two years ago, for work outside; try doing that on a tablet, even now! Yes, I have Android tablets too, but only for instant on consumption use.

    Ultrabooks have always been grossly overpriced, and most laptops are still way too heavy and bulky for transport, and where I need more power, I always want a much more powerful desktop machine with multiple proper screens, and a decent keyboard and mouse, which a laptop is frankly useless for, unless you spend stupid money for one!

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    EeePC901 all the way

    Just because M$ forced the manf's to uderspec them, people lost interest; but open the case, max out the RAM and slap in a decent SSD, and they become good little machines. There are even on-line plans showing how to fit a 3G card internally.

    My 901 has 2Gb Ram, a 64Gb Patriot SSD and runs the full XP Pro package loaded with EVERY SINGLE PROGRAM my desktop runs; sure it wont run modern 3D games (and it isnt keen on .mkv files), but it does everything else - including running as an eReader and mp3 player for the 10 hour coach ride from Guangzhou to Nanning.

    Getting back to the UK after more than 6 months in China, I didnt get around to switching on my desktop until nearly a month later, when I needed some old email contact details.

    Cold boot to working environment is 35 seconds, the same as a friends new "top of the line" Alienware (which can run for as long as an hour on batteries!!)

    Asus lost the plot when they followed the others up the size ladder, the 901 is the IDEAL size, small enough for a largish coat pocket, but with a usably sized keyboard and screen, although a slightly higher rez would have been nice.

    (Where is the "Prise my 901 from my cold, dead, hands" icon??)

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    real shame

    I need to replace my netbook and I was holding out for another one to emerge with a retina style display rather than the 1024x600 they all seem to come with. I don't understand how they could put that screen in a tablet but not a laptop. I figure it must be a real battery killer and that plus Intel wouldn't give you more than 45 minutes on battery...

    Ah well. Now I need to find a laptop with a respectable resolution that will run a Linux distro. Everyone I look at seems to be x768 though which is pathetic.

  21. This post has been deleted by its author

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    not forgetting the VIA options

    The VIA based netbooks didn't have Intel's artificial screen resolution limitations - I'm still happily using an HP 2133 which has a 9" 1280x800 display and a pretty decent keyboard. Just not a very mobile netbook, due to appallingly short battery life.

    The Samsung NC20 used a later VIA processor which is competitive with Atoms in performance, and had a 12" 1280x800 display... and about 4-5 hours battery. But sadly was not sold at typical netbook prices!

    1. Jean Le PHARMACIEN

      Re: not forgetting the VIA options

      Buy an extended battery for it - I did for mine and it really was worth it [you can still get them via eBay and some replacement battery suppliers]

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