Are netbooks the future of the notebook?
That’s the question that Rob Enderle is asking in his excellent analysis of the netbook. Rob tries first to define just what a netbook is, something that all of us who deal with them try to do. He finds the current operating system choices on netbooks to not work very well, from Linux to Vista Basic and I tend to agree with him. But what may be the big driver for netbooks going forward are the cloud services which are proliferating at a rapid pace. Remote computing is the perfect task for the netbook and Rob agrees with that. He sees the netbook as a more capable thin client in this role and he may well be correct with that view. One thing is clear to me and Rob agrees, a change is in the wind in the notebook field and it’s led directly by the netbook.
I think he is pretty much dead on, but I would add to the “specifically designed” os that it should be an “instant on” os.
I’m hoping that Splashtop catches on and forces Microsoft to come out with a competitor much more advanced than say windows ce.
Ah, yes, Enderle, the guy who predicted Apple’s demise and the victory of HD-DVD over BR.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Enderle
I’m familiar with Enderle’s numerous “opinions” over on another notable website. Empty babble from a guy who knows little about hardware and has maybe used IT even less. Was he using a 8.9″ laptop like I was back in 2003? I think not. Yet HE is the one making an opinion? If he actually gets paid to write the garbage that he does, then I want his job. Seriously.
Once again, the “clouds” come out to block the sun. I have no interest in netbooks for cloudy purposes. I live in a rural area and “hotspot” uses for any mobile device is iffy at best. Unless I want to pay a crazy price to my mobile phone carrier for monthly service, cloud computing is a useless concept. So why do I have a great 13.3 inch laptop? Because I want functional portability no matter where I am; in the Barnes and Noble (over an hour away) or my local city park with trees, flowers and clean air.