CES 2009 - TV Trends, WirelessHD, 240Hz and Netbook Pricing
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Manveer Wasson on January 12, 2009 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Ridiculous Netbook Pricing
Thanks for listening to me talk about TVs for a while, now let’s move on to more PC-topics. In particular, I’d like to address the ridiculous nature of netbook pricing.
I had the pleasure of dining with Intel’s Mooly Eden at CES. You may remember Mooly as the father of Centrino; he headed up the Banias design team, which was responsible for the very first Centrino CPU. These days Mooly is more marketing than engineering, but he hasn’t lost his ability to be frank.
I talked to Mooly about how the Atom processor wasn’t delivering enough performance for the netbooks that it’s in. I asked him what happens once Moorestown comes around; will Atom continue to be the netbook CPU of choice or will Intel introduce a very scaled down Nehalem for netbooks and use Atom in smartphones and other smaller devices?
To my surprise, Mooly said that the Atom delivered fine performance for netbooks. But it turned out that Mooly and I had very differing views on netbooks. Mooly’s view was that netbooks should be ultra affordable devices priced between $299 and $349. At those prices, Atom does deliver enough performance.
The reality of the situation however, is that manufacturers are shipping netbooks in the $500 - $900 range (way to go Sony) and outfitting them with 1.6GHz and even 1.33GHz Atom processors. I get that you’re paying a premium for the size of the device, but it seems to me that manufacturers are capitalizing on the newness of netbooks by attempting to price them much higher than they should be.
Stylish, it'll fit in your purse, but it's still got a CPU slower than what was in a mainstream notebook from 2004.
While Dell and HP should be commended on entering the market at or near that $299 - $349 range, I’d like to see more of that sort of behavior from their peers in the market. I think it’s very telling that Apple has opted out of building an Atom-based system thus far; the only reason it makes sense is if you price it very low, and that’s not something Apple would do. The alternative would be putting an Atom in a higher priced notebook, which would compromise the experience, something Apple is also not too keen on doing.
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araczynski - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
I guess its a good thing then that I don't watch enough TV/Movies to care about these new tv developments. My two 2 year old LCD's will just have to 'do' until they die.the only netbook i've ever liked is that acer aspire one (i believe thats its name), $350 at walmart. only turn off is the lcd size in comparison to the top bezel size, seems like a waste of space. if you make the bezel of a certain size, fill it.
JimmiG - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
Totally agree with Mooly about the Netbook pricing. A netbook is by definition affordable, and an Atom-powered Netbook performs as you would expect from a $300 ultra-portable.However, there is currently a gap in the market that computer manufacturers are trying to fill. There are the classic "ultra-portable" laptops that have been around forever and cost upwards of $2000 or more, and then there are the new $300 Netbooks. There isn't anything in between really. So they're taking their Atom designs and putting them into more stylish chassis to create e.g. a $900 Netbook. Those kinds of computers should really feature low-power Core2 Duo processors instead, but I guess that would drive the price up. A dual-core mobile Atom with a few IPC tweaks, running at 2+ GHz might work, or a scaled down Core2 or i7 CPU.
The Atom has gained much brand recognition. It seems everyone wants an Atom. It's also a return to Netbust and the "MHz myth" - 1.6 GHz doesn't sound that bad, but what many don't realize is that it's an in-order CPU a la 1993, with an IPC of less than half that of a Core2 CPU.
Zoomer - Saturday, January 24, 2009 - link
How many netbooks weight 1.2lbs?James5mith - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
Ahh, IPC, it always comes back to IPC. :)elerick - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
I have been really wanting to know some of the features of the plasma's. I have heard the worlds largest plasma plant capable of producing over 1 million units per month is almost complete, in China.Do the new plasma panels offer THX or ISF calibration controls?
Visual - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
Local dimming is a terrible idea - as it also dims the bright pixels in the same general area. It will only be a good feature once it can be done with pixel precision, but that would just mean a LED TV instead of LCD.quiksilvr - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
In my opinion, the smallest size a notebook should be is nothing under 11". 11" notebooks are smaller than a sheet of paper, and be it on your lap, on a plane, in a classroom, or in a coffee shop, you will ALWAYS be able to fit a footprint of a sheet of paper in front of you comfortably. As such I feel that 10" and 9" notebooks should not exist.Another reason why I feel that 11" should be the smallest size is because you can also fit an optical drive in these notebooks, something I feel is still a necessity. Wouldn't be nice to have your netbook as a portable DVD player too without having to rip the DVD onto a flash drive and plug it into your notebook?
IMO, the netbook hasn't reached to the point of reaching its full potential. Hopefully by the summer time the following specs can be available as the base model for a $500 price point:
11" 1280x720 screen (LED, 1.3 MP camera)
Highest CPU clock available for Atom
nVidia 9400M GT
2 GB RAM
32GB SSD
DVD RW/CD RW
802.11 a/b/g/n with Bluetooth 2.1
3G and GPS (let us activate it with a cell phone provider of OUR choosing, just have it there by default)
Windows XP (maybe Windows 7)
6 cell battery
Until then what's available now simply is just too expensive.
strikeback03 - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
Unless they would include both GSM and CDMA hardware, you wouldn't be able to activate it on each of the available choices.Penti - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
Forget about the Atom and it maybe possible with like AMD Neo @ 1.5 - 1.6GHz. (K8 single-core)And for twice the price!
The problem with high resolution 8-11" panels/screens are that none are made. OEM/ODMs can't do more then simply ordering the parts and put it together really. They aren't cheep either. 1280x800 or 1280x768 is do able though. Samsung has a 10.6" with 1280x768.
tayhimself - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
Would you like a pie in the sky with that?