Dell CEO Michael Dell went on record to say that Netbooks and buyer’s remorse go hand-in-hand after about 36 hours.
“If you take a user who’s used to a 14- or 15-inch notebook and you say ‘Here’s a 10-inch netbook,’ they’re gonna say ‘Hey, this is so fantastic. It’s so cute. It’s so light. I love it,’” Dell said during a Tuesday appearance at the Churchill Club. “But about 36 hours later, they’re saying ‘The screen’s gonna have to go. Give me my 15-inch screen back.’”
The comments came amidst a larger session dedicated to convincing Silicon Valley execs that buyer preferences for cheap and low-margin parts is on a downswing. This should no doubt please IT businesses, which have been fretting the Netbook’s tendency to cannibalize sales of superior products.
After talking up higher-performance processors and the excitement surrounding Windows 7, he continued drubbing Netbooks.
“We see a fair amount of customers not really being that satisfied with the smaller screen and the lower performance – unless it’s like a secondary machine or it’s a very first machine and the expectations are low,” he said. “But as a replacement machine for an experienced user, it’s not what we’d recommend. It’s not a good experience, and we don’t see users very happy with those.”
He finished by saying that the company’s education-oriented Netbooks have been tremendously successful, and are perfect for schools.

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