Tech Blog

[#1]

In the first 28 days the iPad was available over 1,000,000 units were sold. Yes, that's million. That's enough that one in 300 Americans would have one. The iPad hit this mark 2.5 times faster than the iPhone. Beyond these great marketing numbers, something interesting, and not entirely unexpected, happened: netbook sales tanked.

• iPad Killing Netbooks Already?
• Analyst: iPad already eating into netbook sales | Electronista
• The iPad is munching away at the netbook market | 9 to 5 Mac
• Will the iPad cannibalize sales? | Macgasm

The data is pretty dramatic when you look at it:

Some folks are thinking that the iPod Touch is the next likely device to take a hit. I'm thinking it's more likely that Apple will be forced to cut the price on the Touch line. As an iPod-device the iPad isn't too great. I tried to use it on the bus like that and was wishing I had my nano instead. It's just not easy to skip songs and such. Not to mention it's huge. I can't slip it into a pocket, I have to have my iPad in my laptop bag or iMurse (hey at least I've had my map bag for 20+ years).

Oh and my netbook? Pity that I just got it running and a really enjoyable machine, because everything that I would want to do on it, I can do on my iPad.

I don't doubt there is a place for netbooks, but really it's going to depend on what you want to use it for. A thin-light notebook to tote about, I think you can do better for not that much more money. Something for light surfing and email? The iPad fits that bill better.

I'll grant that netbook sales were starting to tank before the iPad was announced. No doubt both based on pre-iPad hype and the fact that much more powerful laptops were only a few hundred dollars (if that) more. However, now that the iPad is here, and a proven success, I think the netbook is a computing fad that's had its day and now is done.

[#2]

Good post, trishussey, and what you've written is something I surmised as well. I was never a big fan of the netbook from the beginning. If not for the recession and the fact that they looked cute, netbooks may have been niche products for business users and mobile consumers. But at a $300 price point, many couldn't resist the temptation to pick one up.

Once thin-and-light and ultraportable notebooks with much better specs plummeted in price to the $600-$700 range, the writing was on the wall. The launch of Windows 7 made this a lot easier for manufacturers to pull off. Margins are so paper thin on netbooks that the big guys like HP, Dell and Lenovo only entered the category to buy market share. Look at the specs of the average netbook from all the makers, and you'll see little difference.

The netbook is being hit from three sides. You've got the cheaper and better ultraportable notebooks, the iPad/tablet devices and smartphones basically taking away whatever momentum netbooks had. They've had their 15 minutes of fame, and now it's time to move on to stuff that's much better.