Technology firms 'break up' netbooks

Samsung, Dell, HP and Asus announced that netbook 'death', Acer and MSI are not planning this product either . These moves show that many tech companies have said 'break up' to netbook.

Technology firms 'break up' netbooks Picture 1
Many technology companies start "killing" netbooks because users are no longer interested.

Farewell to the netbook

Appearing in Vietnam market since 2007, netbooks in the beginning really created a fever. With the advantages of small, compact and strong battery, the products of Acer, Asus or Samsung . are continuously received by users. The peak in the number of products consumed by netbooks was in 2010 when 39.4 million units were sold, accounting for about 11% of the computer market at that time (data from Market Research Company Canalys). .

However, later on, netbooks began to show weaknesses: poor configuration, slow processing; At the same time with the appearance of tablet, laptop ultrabook, the compact advantage of this product line is gone. At this point, many users also consider buying products and netbooks are no longer their choice. By the end of 2011, sales of netbooks were down 25% compared to 2010 with 29.4 million units and the number continued to decline significantly in 2012.

Therefore, in late 2011 and early 2012, firms such as Samsung, Dell or HP announced to stop producing netbook products to focus on new strategic products such as ultrabook, tablet . and on the market. only some companies pursuing this product are Asus, Acer and MSI.

But at the present time, the remaining companies also decided to "break up" the netbook. In the press conference to launch the Vivobook product running Windows 8 operating system in HCM City recently, Mr. Jeff Lo, General Director of Asus Vietnam said, Asus will not produce the Eee PC netbook line anymore. Instead, it will focus on laptops and tablets using Microsoft's new operating system. At the same time, Acer and MSI immediately moved away from this product segment, without making any netbook plans.

Death is inevitable

In fact, the disappearance of netbooks on the market has been warned before, when a series of ultrabook products are launched by technology firms. The outstanding features of ultrabook make the advantage of netbooks a convenience when moving, small, compact and long battery is no longer a strong point. Besides, the configuration of ultrabook is also much stronger than the netbook, when using the new generation Intel processor, not to mention the image quality is also much sharper. One point makes the netbook still exist until now is the price of ultrabook is high, making users confused.

Now, with Microsoft launching Windows 8 operating system, the story is completely different. Ordinary laptops are designed to be small, light, and thinner, and also have a decent configuration and touch screen at a reasonable price. For example, Asus's Vivobook, using a new generation Core i3 processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, 11.6-inch multi-touch screen, costing VND 12 million.

Or a series of tablets using Windows 8 operating system are also introduced by the companies, these tablets all use Atom or Core i processors higher than netbooks. In addition, the company also includes an external keyboard attached, turning the tablet into a compact laptop and battery for more than 10 hours, very convenient for users to use.

In the face of these development trends, Asus' netbook sales have fallen sharply and the 'death' is almost mandatory. Because this product line is obsolete and no longer creates attraction in the market. Representatives of other technology firms also said that they will stop producing completely netbook product lines and end up selling products to the market in the coming time when resolving inventory.