Netbook market share is a question of semantics

Posted on Friday, March 6, 2009 by Erlik

So it seems that Linux is losing some market share in the Netbook space.

Well, I think that one of the issues is that a lot of "Netbook" manufactures tend to push mini-laptops instead of real netbooks.

The original EEEPC 701 with its small screen and 4 GB SSD was not suitable for windows: not enough storage, screen too small etc... But it was cheap and ideal for mobile surfing, at true Netbook.

Now most manufacturer are producing mini laptops with 10 inch screens and hard disk. The customers expectation for these is to have a full laptop functionality in a smaller package, not Netbook functionality, and a such a Linux OS designed for Netbooks is not successful.

Manufacturers should bundle a full blown Ubuntu with these instead of Xandros or Linpus.
I think Linuxes (and android) will make a comeback when manufacturers start again to release real Netbooks bases on the ARM architecture: light inexpensive machines designed for surfing.
Its all a question of semantics: what do you consider a Netbook? If a netbooks is a atom base computer with an SSD and a 7 to 9 inch screen, then I am sure the Linux market share is quite high, but then the overall Netbook market share is smaller.

Technorati Delicious StumbleUpon Reddit BlinkList Mixx Facebook Google Bookmark newsvine live slashdot Submit to OSNews

0 Responses to "Netbook market share is a question of semantics":