Dear Netbooks, Please Die. Thank You.

Dear netbook market....I beg you....please die off.

I personally have never been a fan of netbooks.  I've never been able to come up with a logical conclusion as to why anyone would spend their money on something that runs like outdated crap technology they can pick up at a used computer store for much less.  Now that I ponder it, why spend any money on something with the power of a Pentium 3?  That was phased out for a reason wasn't it?

Now the original concept of a netbook, then known as a tablet PC, wasn't too terrible.  Fact is, they just didn't sell for the life of them.

Back in my retail days, we usually had one or two of the HP tablet units.  The general idea was to get portability and battery life in a small and FUNCTIONAL system.  Other than a few cool features like touch screen capability and a rotating display, they failed.  Terribly.  It was the start of a good idea though.  These helped introduce the Pentium M processors and the "ultra portable" market.  Running Windows XP, the performance wasn't too bad.  XP just didn't have the native features supported very well so they tended to be a bit, let's say, quirky?  The damn things just had a tendency to not work right with the stuff they tried to add. But again, I liked the general idea of what they wanted to do.  Much of this has eventually moved into the tablet market with items like the iPad and Android tablets.

The main thing that has been a problem from the start is the price.  Most consumers didn't "get it" on what these were for, and most conventional laptops were cheaper or same price, with better performance.  Although these are still being sold in limited amounts, they're largely unknown.

Then came the netbook.  That infamous little piece of crap hyped to be a Ferrari, but carrying the engine of a Ford Pinto.  Half ass low voltage processors, screens no bigger than 10", and the weight that makes everyone smile.  The biggest problem with this is consumers don't know what they're really good for, and manufacturers don't want to openly admit it.  If you want to waste this kind of money on something that's just for Facebook, email, and a little web surfing?  Fine....go ahead.....be my guest.  Run around and brag about how small and cute it is.  Just don't start crying when it won't run for shit with apps like Photoshop.  I can't recall how many times we easily crashed these things just trying to do basic multi tasking.

Now I'm sure some of you are asking yourselves "well if these things are so bad, why do people keep buying them?"  Easy...the economy.  What's easier to foot the bill on when your kid won't shut up about getting a new computer...$800 on a respectable build for a laptop, or $250 for a netbook?  Let's face it, that kid at your local best Buy really doesn't know much of anything about computers.  He's just there to get a sale, and they can make up the loss of profit margin on it with selling you a warranty, setup, or software.  Manufacturers hate these things because there's ZERO profit in them, but it's the easy item to push for revenue to get by until the economy picks up.  Consumers don't know any better, they just see its a laptop and it's cheap.  It doesn't matter how many times we told them it won't run World of Warcraft, the price tag clouded their judgement and had them back a week later screaming like an idiot because it constantly locked up.

Netbooks need to die out...quickly.  If you want an actual computer and the expected performance of one, buy a real laptop.  Yeah, you're gonna drop $700-$1200 depending on what you want to do with it, but make a smart investment and save yourself hassle.  If you want something seriously portable, go get a damn tablet. You've got the iPad which, although I'm no far, it's selling and has solid support.  You've also got the Android tablets coming out which are gonna sell very well too.  These things do exactly what a portable unit is intended to do, and they do it well.  Leave the other stuff to a real computer.