Path: csiph.com!news.mixmin.net!weretis.net!feeder4.news.weretis.net!feeder5.news.weretis.net!news.solani.org!.POSTED!raspberry.therandymon.com!not-for-mail From: RS Wood Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2017 00:53:57 +0000 Organization: solani.org Lines: 42 Message-ID: <567hpd-0p9.ln1@raspberry.therandymon.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Trace: solani.org 1489366803 24988 eJwFwYERADAEBLCVOP6146DsP0ITGJUdTtCxWIsUBxU9dE0Jq+OOWhllDuKdZN2YuOzV9wEIcBDY (13 Mar 2017 01:00:03 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@news.solani.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2017 01:00:03 +0000 (UTC) X-User-ID: eJwFwYEBwCAIA7CXUGjRd6jr/ycsQXJRXQQLhn3f3No59Au4dYBPg2TM7Tgq6Cj6Udhe/gEkLhFD Cancel-Lock: sha1:4/7BdSEWZ3CR/+eMQVJIWd5pl4E= X-NNTP-Posting-Host: eJwNycEBwCAIA8CVRBIo4yDC/iPY+x7VxMphNHA47hZ6awxxGsi9PrkMCFdNI8/o37vEI6dZDxcqEWg= Xref: csiph.com comp.misc:13298 From the «sent from my netbook, as a matter of fact» department: Title: Can Crowdfunding Bring Back The Netbook? Author: help@slashdot.org Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2017 18:44:00 -0400 Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/TVgBUilS878/can-crowdfunding-bring-back-the-netbook "The mini-laptop's market niche got swamped by the iPad and the phablet," writes Salon, since the stripped-down hardware of tablets made them cheaper to produce. But now netbooks could be making a grassroots-fueled comeback, "thanks to the lower costs in electronics manufacturing and the fact that individual investors can come together to crowdfund projects." An anonymous reader quotes Salon: Michael Mrozek, the Germany-based creator of creator of the DragonBox Pyra, says "I never understood why they were gone in the first place. I have no idea why you would use a tablet. I tried one, and it's awkward to use it for anything else than browsing the Web"... He has already managed to raise several hundred thousand dollars through a private pre-order system set up on his geek's paradise online store. Once those initial orders have been filled, Mrozek said he will probably start up a mainstream crowdfunding campaign for his Linux handheld... "The niche was always there, but thanks to the Internet and crowdfunding, it's easy to reach everyone who's interested in such a device so even a niche product still gets you enough users to sell it. That wasn't possible 10 years ago." Meanwhile, in just under two weeks Planet Computer raised $446,000 on Indiegogo, more than double the original $200,000 goal for their netbook-like Gemini computer (with a keyboard designed by the creator of the original Psion netbook). Planet's CEO Janko Mrsic-Flogel says "It's a bit like Volkswagen bringing back the Beetle," and predicts that the worldwide demand for netbooks could reach 10 million a year. [image 2][2][image 4][4][image 6][6] Read more of this story[7] at Slashdot. [image 8] Links: [1]: http://twitter.com/home?status=Can+Crowdfunding+Bring+Back+The+Netbook%3F%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2ndDcks (link) [2]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png (image) [3]: http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmobile.slashdot.org%2Fstory%2F17%2F03%2F12%2F2140230%2Fcan-crowdfunding-bring-back-the-netbook%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebook (link) [4]: https://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png (image) [5]: http://plus.google.com/share?url=https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/17/03/12/2140230/can-crowdfunding-bring-back-the-netbook?utm_source=slashdot&utm_medium=googleplus (link) [6]: http://www.gstatic.com/images/icons/gplus-16.png (image) [7]: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/17/03/12/2140230/can-crowdfunding-bring-back-the-netbook?utm_source=rss1.0moreanon&utm_medium=feed (link) [8]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~4/TVgBUilS878 (image)