Dell CEO hates on Netbooks

Robert Hallock (Thrax) Dell CEO Michael Dell has a few not-so-nice things to say about the Netbook.

October 14, 2009 1:04 PM ET in News, , ,

dell_logoDell 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.

11 Comments:

  1. Huh. I freakin' love my netbook. No buyer's remorse here. My biggest buyer's remorse is this fleet of asstastic Dell's I need to support - they just keep failing.

  2. I can kind of see the point he's poorly trying to make. I'm looking at picking up a netbook, but my laptop won't be getting left in the dust because of it. Seems the netbook is nice for doing things like hopping on the wifi at the coffee house and checking your mail or doing other simple things like that. For extended trips though I'd have to have my laptop with me so that I could get more than just simple things done.

  3. I love my netbook too. I lugged around a 15 inch laptop for 4 years and finally got tired of lugging the stupid thing everywhere.

  4. So now it just sits on your desk providing a 4th screen for your nerdosity.

  5. So now it just sits on your desk providing a 4th screen for your nerdosity.

    /me shrugs.

    Sometimes a guy needs every OS on his desk at once

  6. for what is really in a netbook just put it all on a iphone or cell phone

  7. Yeah, except some people like to have more than 320x480 to view email and webpages on. I know I do.

  8. My EEEPC has served me well when I am travelling. I took it ICHQ with me as it meant easy dragging around. It does the job nicely where a smartphone is too small and a full size laptop is a pain. You get out of it what you want.

  9. /me has a 12.1" screen on a 3lb laptop with a dual core and 4 gigs of DDR3.

    Best of both worlds!

  10. And how much did you pay? Right.

  11. I'm jus' sayin'.

    What's the combined cost on a regular laptop and a netbook? I wonder if we're getting close.

Troll-free since 2003 ®