Apple sold 14 per cent fewer iPads in the quarter that ended June 30 than in the same quarter last year, while the revenue from those sales plummeted by 27 per cent. The solution? Cut prices, say analysts.
Tablets, netbooks, smartphones--these days, you can't buy a microwave without being upsold on the touchscreen, app-store model. But when you're picking out your preferred mobile tech for work (or even for play), you can't rely on a features chart or a list of specs to tell you what you should buy.
So long, netbooks.
The term "disruptive," a common buzzword in tech journalism, is typically used to describe something that jars people out of existing ways of doing things, and provides them with both new ways to do the old things and new things to do. Weather-beaten as the expression might be, it fits when talking about two products that took personal computing by storm over the past couple of years: the iPad and the netbook.
Chip manufacturer Intel is defying conventions and moving out of its established space in personal computing systems, and spreading their territory to include tablets, mobile phones, and smart TVs, among others.
Google's Chrome OS is coming to a netbook near you sometime later this year. The Web-centric, Linux-based, open source platform will offer a lightweight, cost-effective alternative operating system for portable computing.
It's official: Google plans to debut its Chrome operating system in the fourth quarter of this year, although the company has yet to provide an exact launch date. Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, made the announcement Wednesday at the Computex trade show in Taipei, according to IDC News.
While the Apple iPad and other emerging tablets may ultimately shift the playing field, netbooks from the big corporate suppliers offer an interesting mobile alternative to big, bulky laptops.
"The netbook is not an experience people are going to continue wanting to have," Apple COO Tim Cook said Tuesday at an investment conference in San Francisco. "When they play with the iPad and experience the magic of using it... I have a hard time believing they're going to go for a netbook."
In launching the new Apple iPad this week, CEO Steve Jobs took a stand against the popular netbook category, which he dismissed as a poor fit into the space between laptops and smartphones.
Look, I know you like the netbook idea -- and you love netbook prices. If you're like most people, you think tablets are expensive, slow, heavy and a pain to use. But if you've bought one, you know that netbooks aren't as great as they sound. And next year's tablets will be way better than you think.
The netbook promises convenience and capability in a small, lightweight, and generally inexpensive package, and the concept of a smartbook goes even further: a handy-dandy combination of smartphone and notebook. Alas, most netbook offerings come burdened with a full-blown Windows operating system, which runs slowly on performance-limited netbook hardware and saps battery life. And Windows is not exactly smartphone-oriented.
Nokia spokespeople are quick to correct you if you slip and call the Booklet 3G a netbook.
The words overclocking and netbook appear in a sentence together about as often as Steve Ballmer is spotted at a Linux convention. Netbooks are all about portability over performance. Overclocking is all about taking already blazing-fast gear and pushing it to its upper limits -- warranties, energy use and safety be damned. Right?
The Nokia Booklet 3G netbook may have some clever innovations, including mobile broadband and a 12-hour battery, but its steep price tag will drive customers away.