Comments on: Netbooks Hurting Notebooks; Will They Also Kill the MID Market?

By: Herbert William

Herbert William — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:26:51 +0000

Surfing the net or watching feature length movies on MID’s with screen sizes under 5″ is a bit of a joke. Keying in text with a seperate keyboard and having to flip back a forth between keyboard and application is not productive. If the MID doubles as your phone, maybe they actually offer some value. Netbooks are fantastic travelling companions and they do what laptops promised to do all along – provide function and portability along with real world usability. A 7-10 inch screen with a fully functional keyboard makes for a wonderful portable computing experience. Netbooks occupy a sweet-spot in the computing world and they are here to stay.

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:13:36 +0000

I personally don’t like compromise. I’d prefer a single device that fits in my pocket and provides me with the ability to do work (mainly office apps) in the cloud, browse the net, listen to music, and make voice calls. i don’t want to carry 2 small overlapping devices. Then, at home, i would prefer a larger machine with enough power to do anything else i want to do.

so, i see no point in MIDs or netbooks, especially for myself.

By: Luscious

Luscious — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:54:07 +0000

Netbooks are biting into notebook sales, there’s no disagreement there. But I would not be worried that the notebook market will suffer any real loss. There will always be strong demand for full-featured mobile computers, especially since over the years notebook sales have surpassed desktop sales. And while you may no longer see $2500+ notebooks on sale at Best Buy (RIP Circuit City), those expensive/powerful notebooks still do exist, as do the many enthusiasts/designers who crave such mobile horsepower.

By: zFrame

zFrame — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:12:34 +0000

wouldnt MIDS have had to be born 1st before netbooks could even kill them?

ever seen anybody using a MID besides a blogger?

lol, thats what i thought.

MIDs have always been a stupid idea since they were 1st thought up & as we all see went absolutely nowhere. now the only people even seemingly interested in them is because they are making XP drivers available (for people who want cheap alternative to OQOQ).

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:03:14 +0000

I just finished reading the following article about the impact Netbooks are having on notebook sales: http://blogs.computerworld.com/netbooks_killing_pc_and_notebook_sales_its_a_myth

By the way, Windows does NOT cost $300 on any OEM computer.

By: turn.self.off

turn.self.off — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:10:32 +0000

ones we see smartphones packing arm cortex based cpu, a os that can play nice with redfly like solutions, and most likely a webkit browser, one is looking at something that can really shake our concept of a personal computer…

By: vm-01

vm-01 — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:04:54 +0000

By the way Intel is still making money so I don’t see what the big deal is.

The presence of linux loaded SSDs made HDD makers and Microsoft really nervous but theeir concerns seem to have been answered.

By: vm-01

vm-01 — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:00:14 +0000

I’m also backing up Nate here.

The MID got a ridiculous amount of web presence for something that never showed commercial success. Intel started promoting MIDs as a way of avoiding the negative UMPC press and the project just stalled and stalled.

UMPCs at least had one major player involved (Samsung) and they got some traction. MIDs never got off the ground before they lost their market to these new products: the Apple iphone/ipod touch and the Asus EEEPC.

The EEEPC in particular caught everyone by surprise. Notice that nobody even mentioned the term “netbook” until the other companies wanted in on the market. It was just a little notebook that sold with great success because it reached the price point that both MIDs and UMPCs promised but never delivered. Brilliant move by Asus after experimenting with UMPCs and deciding not to follow the sheep to Intel’s MID slaughterhouse.

By: Boca

Boca — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:49:09 +0000

I bought a Fujitsu U810 almost exactly a year ago.
Expensive, but I knew I needed a smaller second PC for all the travel I did and the EeePC was young in its life… (I think ASUS were only on their 54th update of the machine!)

Problem was that the Fujitsu turned out to be too small to be functional as work PC and too large to whip out and do quick browsing.

I sold it on ebay and bought an MSI Wind, an iPod Touch, an extra 1GB RAM, a 320GB hard drive, and had cash left over for a nice dinner!

Now I think I have a the prefect, (for me), suite of technology for real-world mobile computing.

I cannot see how the MID market will ever now get enough volume to make it worthwhile for companies to keep innovating.

Flipstart (and I guess also Sony with their UX range), made the right decision to exit the ‘tiny-is-good’ market when they did. Let’s see how many other models disappear this year.

By: heath

heath — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:23:47 +0000

nate hit it on the head.. MIDs were that odd niche that were in between web browsing phones and regular computers. not a booming market.. the netbook hit the sweetspot. familiar form factor, decent web experience, and a price that was highly palatable. what has happened is exactly what bluemonq stated: people that wouldn’t have gotten that laptop or even considered a MID spotted that netbook at walmart and decided it offered a value and useability that was palatable to them. microsoft and computer companies should be happy they have a hot commodity on there hands, if even at a lower profit margin, during tough times..