Submitted by The NPD group has done a study into customer satisfaction among netbook buyers, and they came to some surprisingly unsurprising results. As it turns out, people who expected a notebook when they bought a netbook were more likely to be disappointed than buyers who set out to buy a netbook from the get-go. No doodoo, Sherlock.
According to the study done by the NPD group, 58% of consumers who bought a netbook instead of a notebook were satisfied with their purchase. In comparison, 70% of people who set out to buy a netbook from the get-go were satisfied. This seems pretty straightforward to me: if you want to buy object A, but when you get home you see it’s object B, you’re going to be dissatisfied.
The study also dives into why people were dissatisfied, and this is where the cat comes out of the bag. As it turns out, people were expecting netbooks to deliver the same kind of performance and functionality as a normal notebook does. Consequently, they are dissatisfied when they discover that a netbook simply doesn’t deliver. It seems like there’s a marketing flaw here, or that salespeople aren’t properly helping the people buying notebooks. Netbooks are for a specific type of use, and people who want a notebook won’t be happy with a netbook.
Curiously, the ComputerWorld article also states that the costumer satisfaction figures are worse than those of normal notebooks. However, the article doesn’t provide any further statements or figures for that, so where exactly it draws this comparison from remains a mystery.
Still, it wouldn’t be too hard to explain. Contrary to popular belief, people are not snowflakes, and we all behave more or less in the same predictable and well-documented manners. A very well-documented behaviour pattern in mankind is that the more effort someone has put into obtaining something, the more likely he’ll positively value that same something. If you spend 2000 EUR on a laptop and it sucks, you are less likely to complain about it than if you bought a 400 EUR laptop and it sucks just as much.
It’s mostly related to the cognitive dissonance theory; the state of cognitive dissonance is more severe in the case of the sucking 2000 EUR laptop than it is in the case of the 400 EUR laptop. There are several ways to resolve a state of cognitive dissonance, but the stronger the dissonance, the less likely you are to solve it by accepting the new state (which would mean rejecting your choice for the 2000 EUR laptop as false). In other words, you’re going to rationalise.
In any case, that’s all just a guess. It’s not at all unlikely that significantly more people dislike their netbooks than they do normal notebooks, but I’m not surprised by that if buyers have been mislead into believing that a netbook is the same as a notebook.
In the first sentence of the second paragraph, should be ‘dissatisfied’ instead of ‘satisfied’.
Well, back to the topic, the reason is quite simple and straight-forward. The item he/she bought was not what he/she wanted in the first place. Wait a second. I don’t really think we could call it a reason. That’s just a common sense?
Maybe common sense isn’t so common after all
Can’t say those unhappy owners bought them eith their eyes closed. A dealer doesn’t have to go out of his was to eplain to potential buyers what netbooks lack that their bigger cousins have; just a simple but clear list should suffice. But since most netbooks have XP on them, buyers lump them with regular notebooks.
My IdeaPad S10 acts as a companion to my desktop, and is partnered with my smartphone. I split my time between the two machines fairly evenly.
BTW, this is a US-based survey; wonder what the situation is elsewhere?
It all depends on how you display them. Some display them with all the other notebooks and the impression given is that you’re just getting a smaller notebook but still with all the power you want. On the other hand, however, I’ve seen the netbooks located in an area by themselves along with mobile phones, mobile broadband modems and other ultra portable devices.
Alot of sales people aren’t honest with customers though; sale staff need to come clean if the end user is wanting to do something and the netbook won’t do the job. Look through Amazon at the number of idiots who have bought netbooks then whining because it takes ages to do high end video compression. Users are idiots and it is the sales staff to point them in the direction to a product that suits their needs.
That’s exactly what I’ve been saying about my Asus Eeepc.
If you think of it as a fancy PDA, it’s freakin’ sweet. Imagine a Dell Axim with a 10″ screen, 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and a full version of Microsoft XP. And the Asus costs less.
But if someone buys one with the expectations of it being a ‘real’ computer, they’re going to be sad.
I understand how people make the assumption that is more than just a glorified PDA – what it should have been was a screen with a slide out keyboard. I made a similar mistake, I’ve since sold off my EeePC since it was more of an impulse buy than a requirement – for alot of people I do think it is more of an impulse buy because it is so cheap but they sit there afterwards trying to work out what they’re going to do with it. I already had a MacBook and iMac so I guess I wasn’t their target market.
It will be interesting to see how things will be once the N280 and future processors come onboard along with the release of Windows 7. The problem with Windows XP is that even though it is very functional there is always a feeling in the back of the users mind that it is ancient and tired. Its functional, but one would rather prefer something that is a little more modern.
With that being said, I would like to see the keyboard go entirely so that all you have is a 10inch screen with an on/off button – basically an oversized iPhone/iPod Touch with USB ports, SSD for storage and SD slot for expansion. Couple that with either Windows 7 or a customised version of Fedora 11 or even Novell SLED – and you’d have a winner. Bundle a sexy black leather protector case like the following:
http://www.iworld.co.uk/p/Gear4_LeatherJacket_for_iPod_Touch_2G.htm
And you’ll find it’ll be the the icing on the cake – too bad so many OEM’s can’t see the elephant sitting in the corner of the living room.
Edited 2009-06-23 14:19 UTC
On a tablet device with no physical keyboard the Palm was ok due to the stylus input pad but the iPod touch keyboard and Maemo virtual keyboard are painful for more than short text input. With everything since the Newton, I’ve gotten a separate keyboard to use with it. Palms; bluetooth keyboard. N800; bluetooth keyboard. The slider keypad on the N810 is much better than the virtual keyboard also. I’ve not had to use a bluetooth keoboard with it yet.
The specs are ok.2 GB of RAM and an 160 GB hard drive? how come it is not a real computer?
Here’s what the EeePC is lacking or deficient that would otherwise make it a ‘real’ computer::
Keyboard. Speakers. Graphic card. Sound card. Screen size. Processor. Upgradability/expandability. Optical drive. RAID-capable. Floppy drive (some folks still use them, particularly us OS hobbiests). Multi-card reader.
Not to mention limitations on software and operating system installations.
——————-
Don’t misunderstand, I actually like the Eeepc; it’s the perfect motel toy for traveling. But I have no fantasies about it running the same software or performing the same tasks as a ‘real’ computer: gaming, GIS, CAD, music, connecting to peripherals, etc.
Edited 2009-06-23 16:53 UTC
Note, I have an Acer Aspire One, so I suppose I don’t have a direct comparison…
Mine isn’t too bad… can always hook up an external keyboard if I must.
Yep, they suck… headphones are a great addition
Good enough for my purposes, I almost always use integrated video on machines these days anyway.
Intel HDA is enough for me…
Yep, damnit for portability it’s exactly what I expect.
Hard to argue with the efficiency of the Atom, however…
USB…
USB…
WTF?
USB…
Mine has this… sort of. (two if you count the other SD card slot too – but it’s not multi-card)
It doesn’t accommodate CF which is what my camera uses… so, USB…
Jeez, I dunno, I’m quad-booting mine between Windows XP, eeebuntu, Haiku GCC2 and Haiku GCC4 currently… those are the only OSes I really mess with at this point.
Of course everyone has different computing needs. And naturally the definition of a ‘real’ computer is an opinion, which I’ve stated mine.
So you’re willing to settle for onboard sound, integrated graphics, and a miniature screen; you self-limit your computer use to low-resource OSes and software; and you know many work-arounds for other shortcomings. My point: you wouldn’t have to if it were a ‘real’ computer.
You’ve also inadvertently highlighted one of the deficiencies that I listed earlier, expandability. USB mouse, USB keyboard, USB card reader, USB sound card, USB CD/DVD drive, and undoubtedly a printer and scanner too. Toss in USB connections for a calculator, GPS, portable music player, PDA…
Just how many USB plugs would you guess that an Asus Eeepc has? I don’t know about the Acer, but the Asus has exactly three. Many/most full-size laptops have at least twice that many, and a ‘real’ computer could have as many as 8, 10, or maybe 12 in addition to PS/2 plugs for keyboard and mouse.
You’re not getting it. A netbook isn’t sitting in the same place all the time, connected to ten million peripherals. Peripherals are plugged in on a need-to-use basis – not on a could-be-used basis. Why on earth would I need to have all those devices plugged in all the time? On a mobile device, no less?
You want too much out of a netbook, and as such, you don’t need a netbook. You want it to be something that it simply isn’t. I won’t buy an iPhone if I want a netbook, and as such, I won’t buy a netbook if I want a laptop.
My Acer Aspire One is used as a media player, and thanks to having a Homegroup (go Windows 7, go!), it does the whole media player thing effortlessly. On top of that, I do a lot of OSAlert work on my netbook, because I use the device in bed (so OSAlert gets maintained before I go to sleep, and right after I wake up).
It does these tasks much more elegantly than my massive 15″ PowerBook, exactly because it’s so small, cheap, and light.
Well, seems that at the end many netbook customers are in fact looking for a quasi-non existent market segment: ultra-cheap notebooks. That was an option I had looked for too, considered my severe lack of cash when my old laptop screen died and now is stuck at home plugged to a monitor.
And i think that, if some companies start to deliver off-the shelf parts to build custom notebooks (in theory possible: we have pci-mini standards for cards and open design cases,standard for optical drives and ssd or hard disks,we just are missing custom laptop mother boards), there is a new whole market segment to explore here.
Simone “Saimon69” Bernacchia
Edited 2009-06-23 18:53 UTC
I “get it” just fine. I bought one and really like it. But obviously other shoppers don’t, thus the high rate of dissatisfaction.
On the other hand, you have set a “real computer” up on a pedestal as some sort of all-in-one machine that must have every bell and whistle… Quite sad really.
That’s exactly what I expect from a primary computer, an all-in-one machine capable of every function I might envision needing and expandability/upgradability for flexibility of meeting future needs.
That’s why a netbook would make a poor primary computer, and anyone who bought one thinking otherwise would be sorely disappointed.
Damn…did you even use a computer prior to 4 years ago?
My Pentium 4 laptop has exactly 2 USB ports… My Pentium III laptop has exactly 1…
You’ve somehow managed to mold your brain into the shiny new world of “more is better”…
I’m not sure how we got off on this tangent, me having to defend computer capabilities. I’m not big into laptops but yeah, we had a few laptops at work with Pentium 4 processors. They had six USB plugs as I recall, two separate and a stack of 4 on the rear. Good thing too, our software wouldn’t run without a USB ‘key’ inserted, plus we ran a USB drive, printer, and mouse constantly.
Before that USB wasn’t as popular. Many peripherals connected through a serial cable, and keyboards and mice almost always had designated PS/2 plugs. Heck, it wasn’t that long ago that operating systems didn’t really support USB.
So I guess my MacBook Pro isn’t a real computer either, since it only has two USB ports. Nevermind the fact that I was a big spender and got a 7-port Belkin hub.
When I get to work in the morning, I plug in one USB port, one MDP plug. That’s it. Presto! Instant computer. Before that I guess it was just a calculator.
No offense, sir, but your interpretion of what a “real” computer is is quite skewed, and judging by the other responses in this thread, I am not the only one to think so.
And btw, my iPod Touch is also a computer. It does many things as good or better than “real” computers did just a few short years ago.
Edited 2009-06-23 19:55 UTC
So you’re willing to settle for onboard sound,integrated graphics, and a miniature screen;
I need something mobile (7hr+) and fan-less (ARM based) living at the bottom of my bag/in car. Obviously I don’t need external keyboards, VGA/DVI-out, expansion slots etc
I have a laptop + 21″ display for everyday work.
Then it seems like a netbook might be just the thing for you. That’s how I use mine too, a portable toy/tool when on the road. Lightweight, inexpensive, and capable of computing at a certain level.
But had you bought a netbook expecting it to be a “desktop replacement” or even a “laptop replacement”, you would likely be among the dissatisfied.
Awesome back pedaling. So now we’ve gone from “it’s not a real computer” to “it’s not a good primary computer”.
Yeah, no kidding. I didn’t see anyone in here saying they’re a good primary computer.
I use a bluetooth mouse when I need one. USB sound card? Why? I use a remote CD across my network, but do have a USB DVDRW, not that I use it much at all. Usually only during a program’s initial install. Most of my apps are internet downloaded these days anyway. Printer and scanner and card reader are all networked. USB calculator? Why does anyone need to plug in a calculator to use it? My GPS is bluetooth.
My Dell mini9 had 3 USB, and this HP Mini 2140 I’m on has 2. It also has a PCIe 54 slot so I have firewire as well.
Most everything you list is available in wireless options, and you are right, if you stick to wired stuff, you are gonna need a ton of USB connections. iMacs only have 3 or 4 USB connectors as well. Netbooks are designed for the net, which you really don’t need to plug into. Many folks have gone wireless for a ton of their peripherals these days anyway, so it’s not like USB ports are usually in short supply. Most laptops and notebooks also only have 3-4 USB ports.
And, my Acer Aspire One netbook has a multi-card reader slot.
The Asus Eeepc 1000HE has an SD card slot only. And no space to install a full card reader. Fortunately the SD works great for us – it’s what our PDAs use, and every multi-card reader has SD also.
Since the Asus has no optical drive, that lone slot is the most practical way to install software (use a real computer to copy the installation files from a CD to an SD card) or transfer files.
So I guess one of my computers, still running full versions of Linux and Windows, is no longer a real computer?
Keyboard. All netbooks so far have keyboards.
Speakers. speakers too
Graphic card. They also have Graphics cards. We’re on a roll.
Sound card. Yup, we’ve got a sound card
Screen size. Small, but with usable res
Processor. As fast as procs from just a few years ago
Upgradability/expandability. You mean like laptop? How about an ExpressCard slot?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146554
Optical drive. USB works wonders here.
RAID-capable. You mean like all the other RAID equipped laptops? Oh wait, that’s like 2% of the laptop market, if that.
Floppy drive. It’s 2009. Come on in, the water’s warm.
Multi-card reader. A number of the netbooks have these.
Here’s one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152092
Edited 2009-06-23 19:50 UTC
I have a 10″ EEEpc, and while it’s ok, there’s a lot wrong with it. A few problems are: huge screen bezel (IBM managed to make full-lid sized screens back in 1996), crappy mouse buttons and a generally crappy trackpad, dumb Fn key in the wrong place, bottom-pointing speakers (for gawds sake, why???), Linux battery life is approx 1hr less than on XP (not the EEE’s fault though), abysmally slow HD access speed (I have the SSD/CF card version), and a built-in webcam I don’t want. I’d also prefer 4:3 ratio to 16:10 or 16:9, but apparently I’m the only one who doesn’t use their laptop for passively consuming video. Reviews also claimed it to be silent, but I can still hear the fan. Like most Atom based boards, the CPU can cool passively, but the crappy chipset needs a fan – a tiny, high-pitched one.
It’s usable, but I plan to ebay it as soon as a decent ARM netbook comes out.
So, your view is that full-size laptops aren’t real computers either?
Generally no. Yeah, it’s technically a real computer, but they fall far short of my needs and preferences. Some are close though, but those are ~very~ pricey and still very limited as far as upgradeability.
In fact for the price of a “desktop replacement” laptop, a person could buy a kick-a** desktop ~and~ a netbook.
I am writing from LG LT20 that has similar spec to Asus EEE PC (1.5 GHz Pentium M with 2GB DDR-RAM). It does not have built-in optical drive nor floppy disk (which is depreciated and should not be part of modern netbook or notebook). For that logic, LT20 is not a ‘real’ computer, right?
It depends what operating are used. It is not hard to install from a live-USB or SD Card.
Then you should blame yourself to choose the wrong hardware. As for music, even the XO-1 can play them once your favorite musics are converted (on a Linux distribution, it just a matter for using OGGConvert or ffmpeg2[insert_format]).
I dispute labeling the Netbook concept as “not a real computer”. They *are* real computers as far as features are concerned – they’re just small and relatively low-powered, as the prices reflect.
It’s not a computer to play games on, that’s for sure. But it is a computer I can comfortably take on holiday, weighing less than half what a regular laptop would. It’s a computer I can use to keep in contact with home, to take photos off my camera, do a little editing, and upload for family and friends to see. That’s why I own one, at least…
Netbooks like the Asus EEE PC series and Acer Aspire One
series are designed for low end. Mostly used for surfing
the net, email and some times for editing documents.
Most likely people are getting the wrong information
or really don’t under stand the difference between
a notebook and a netbook. That’s why people
are disappointed with the netbook. They where expecting
it to perform like a notebook an it doesn’t. They where
expecting it to play games and do others things like
editing photos.
I own a Asus EEE pc 900 and a HP laptop. My laptop
is a high end version that preforms just as good as my
desktop. I only use my netbook to surf the net and
read or send email. I use my laptop to do all my
other stuff my netbook can’t do.
I still prefer a desktop system over a laptop. They
have better selection for graphics and other hardware
options.
Bottom line people need to read reviews and do better
research when selecting a netbook.
I purchased a Linux-based netbook, wanting to support open source. I found out quickly that I needed to be a programmer to get it to work with my Sprint air card. I’ve been too busy to figure this out. It defeats the purpose of buying a netbook if it won’t connect to the internet.
I’m not overly upset. I’ll find someone to fix my netbook at some point (it was cheap). I think open source (and linux-based netbooks) will go further if it is inclusive to people who are not programmers
Same issue as always. The hardware vendors need to be motivated to open up their hardware to allow drivers to be written. You can’t exactly blame linux for a hardware vendor’s closedness. This is especially true with telecomms.
I assume that the aircard was a USB mobile broadband modem – if so, which Linux distribution were you using? I’ve given Ubuntu and Fedora a try with my ZTE mobile as well as my old Vodem Modem (Huawei E220) and they seem to work without a hitch – using the standard Network Manager provided.
I used to lug around my 17″ MBP. I then bought a Dell Mini9 and loved it. So much so that after 3 months with it, it became my main machine. I have another machine to do video editing and big photo editing on (my kid’s alienware gaming rig), but I don’t do that often. This machine has been great for light photo editing and everything else I do.
Just 2 weeks ago, I got my hp mini 2140 and have moved to it. It has the bigger keyboard, which makes programming easier, and a real HD instead of a tiny SSD. Admittedly, that tiny SSD was barely enough, and I stopped downloading so much, which was a productivity booster.
I bought them with linux, but use OSX on them. I do have the Windows disks for them as well, but was not impressed by it on them. Linux on the mini9 was neat, and I really liked the interface. The linux implementation on the hp looks good, but wasn’t very functional for me.
I really like this 2140, it’s my main machine, and just plain works.
You don’t say whether you have the high resolution variant of the HP 2140 – that would be my perfect small laptop I think. A resolution of 1024 x 578 like the lower resolution HP 2140 wouldn’t be quite good enough for me.
I use an HP 2133 as my main machine, like the 2140 it’s beautifully finished has a great keyboard. It’s a bit slow at compiling C++ with the VIA C7 chip, but that hardly matters to most normal users. I have Kubuntu Intrepid with KDE 4.2 and that is a really nice combination. The 2133 has a screen resolution of 1288 x 768 which is good enough for me, but type is just that bit too small sometimes. The slightly larger screen on the HP 2140 with a 10 inch diagonal, might be just perfect – I’m really keen to see what it looks like in the flesh.
Once you got used to carrying 1-1.25 Kg machines around, anything that weighs 2-3 Kg seems more ‘luggable’ that actually portable.
I have the HD screen, and I love it. Major improvement over the SD screen. My Dell had the 1024×600, and there really is a difference onsite when you use the 1366×768 on my HD screen.
When I get home, I do plug my mini into my 20″ screen and use both screens. Works great.
The reason I bought the 2140 is that now they do use the 1.6 Atom like my mini did, so overall, I see no performance difference, even the HD in this vs. the SSD in my mini9. Because I have it laying around though, I may put in a 320GB 7200 before too long. But seriously, the 160GB 5400 in it works fine.
People who expected a Ford when they purchased a Trabant were disappointed with their purchase.
Seriously, people get paid to do research like this?
oh god, don’t even bring up trabants. If the US government has anything to do about it, we will end up with the american version being produced by GMAC… bleh
anyways, I adore my mini9
But I see lots of people buying netbooks and then getting pissed because the screens are so small or they dont have optical drives, etc etc. People need to do more research before buying.
IMHO, most people that are in this ‘disappointed’ category were really looking for a sub-notebook/ultra-portable. Something along the lines of a Thinkpad X series machine (others make similar form-factor machines, but that’s what I’m most familiar with). Unfortunately, while these have a nice compromise between the size and power of netbooks and full-size notebooks, the price is usually higher than both.
However, I’ve found IBM still has some (refurb’ed) older models in the X series for around the same price as a current (well-stocked) netbook. Battery life isn’t as good, but performance is much better for every-day mobile computing. I’m currently running an X40 with a 32GB SSD and Kubuntu 9.04 — it runs like a champ, though I’m looking into a higher-capacity battery.
I’d think that people buying a cheaper computer would expect that it would be less powerful. But netbooks are smaller than notebooks, so maybe people think that the reduction in size explains the price difference.
But then I know a lot of people that when looking for a computer say something along the lines of “I don’t need much, I just use it for the web, facebook, email and youtube” and have some expectation that these things don’t require much computing resources.
Well, that is exactly what Netbooks are for, is those users. At least that is how they are marketed. It is when they decide to do something different like play games or work remotely that the issue really comes up.
Cute little thing, all she does is use the internet (email, browse, social sites) so for her it is perfect. She totes it around all over and it does just fine.
At home they have PCs and a larger laptop.
I bought a MSI Wind (well PC World Advent branded one) a while back looking for a general purpose Windows and Linux PC … and got one. It replaced and outperformed a UMPC I bought some years before at a quarter of the price.
Performance wise I’ve had no issues outside of modern (last 4 years or so) games, like any PC lumbered with the rubbish Intel integrated graphics.
Hardware wise, the height of the screen at 600px is a bit limiting and I dislike touchpads in general.
But all in all one of the best purchases I made. And no I don’t just use it for the occasional “browsing, email and writing letters” niche that some people seem to be hammering netbooks into.
Netbooks are laptops, yes if I’d been stuck with a default crappy no-name Linux distro and no updates I might well be disapointed, but I’m not.
I have an eee PC 900 Windows xp With a Celeron processor.. I was looking at media players with wifi access mainly Archos or iPod touch. It does what I want it to do – surf the web. email, and watch movies ripped from DVDs that I own ( and a little tech tinkering.
Biggest drawbacks are battery life and XP can be slow. I installed iTunes but got performance to improve by uninstalling iTunes and installing VLC. It runs much faster using a lightweight linux distro. I have run Antix, Puppee, Crunchee, and Easy Peasy installed on an SD card and have been happy with performance. You can run Antix and Puppeee/Puppy in ram and minimize writes to flash memory. I thought my teenaged daughters would borrow it when they went to the library but they don’t like the keyboard and screen. The small keyboard and and screen deter me fom spending too much time online when I have other things to do at home but are great for travel. Before I bought it, I took into account that an old 700MHZ Thinkpad had with Antix installed had enough processor power for a travel and internet machine. I wish I had bought one with a larger hard drive but I use an external drive for movies, pictures etc but if the netbook gets lost or stolen, I lose hardware but not valuable data.
… with my ASUS EEE PC-900 (Linux Version – Modified to eeeUbuntu).
If it would break, I would buy a netbook again.
Some people dissatisfied with netbooks, because they wanted laptops. How many people are dissatisfied with laptops, because they wanted a light computer for travel?
1. People are dumb.
2. If you need a netbook, get a netbook. If you need a notebook, get a notebook.
3. If you mix up point 2, see point 1.
When I travel, I’m not looking for a mobile workstation. I look for something that I can use to VPN to the job, check my mail, kick off a few processes, and basically use to troublehoot and communicate (skype, dimdim, or gotomeeting) while I’m abroad Meanwhile has the ability to play a DVD or movie file in it’s entirety w/o burning my lap, or running out of juice. I like Dell’s new Mini 10. I think it he perfect size and resolution. HP is second IMO.
“If you spend 2000 EUR on a laptop and it sucks, you are less likely to complain about it than if you bought a 400 EUR laptop and it sucks just as much.”
Really?
If I buy a laptop for 2000 EUR and it sucks I’m going to get it fixed or try to get my money back.
If I buy a laptop for 400 EUR well… what to expect.
But thats just my opinion.
I would just like to say I think netbooks are sensational. You just pick them up and go. Or, you can plug in pretty much whatever you want to, if you have to do so.
They are real computers…and all the devices mentioned above are real computers. They all have different capabilities. I’m fifty seven years old and have used many, many types of computers. Yes, netbooks are real computers. It is true, they should always be advertised as what they are and not something else.
Was it Tim Cook of Apple that said something netbooks having cramped keyboards, crappy software, cheaply made or something like that? Well, he is right about some of those things. We who love netbboks love those cramped keyboards and love that they are “cheap”. I got my 8.9 Aspire One at Walmart for $248.00. Keep that cheapness coming!!! We love it!!
As for crappy software…well, some come with crappy software, but most with WinXP. XP, as old as it is, is the perfect OS for netbooks. Oh, we tinkerers will put all kinds of stuff on it, but for regular people, XP is the exact, perfect OS for this type of computer. Again, keep XP coming – we love it too!
If they want to make incremental improvements in processing power or RAM expansion, sound, graphics, that’s fine, but we don’t care that much. Just keep it cheap and small and we’ll be happy.