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can crowdfunding bring back the netbook?

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  can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2017-03-13 00:53 +0000
    Re: can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2017-03-13 08:41 +0000
      Re: can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2017-03-13 10:00 +0000
      Re: can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-03-13 12:29 -0400
    Re: can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2017-03-13 15:49 -0400
      Re: can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2017-03-13 21:07 -0400
        Re: can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2017-03-14 08:44 +0000
        Re: can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> - 2017-03-14 15:04 -0400
          Re: can crowdfunding bring back the netbook? mausg@mail.com - 2017-03-15 17:12 +0000

#13298 — can crowdfunding bring back the netbook?

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)

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#13299

RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> quotes:
> "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"...

And yet they’ve sold very well. Could it be that lots of other people
have a practical use for them, despite his personal dislike? Perhaps he
should do some market research into why they’re successful before going
into competition with them.

-- 
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

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#13300

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> quotes:
>> "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"...
> 
> And yet they?ve sold very well. Could it be that lots of other people
> have a practical use for them, despite his personal dislike?  Perhaps
> he should do some market research into why they're successful before
> going into competition with them.

Exactly.  The final sentence likely sums up why he does not understand:

   "I tried one, and it's awkward to use it for anything else than
   browsing the Web"

What he seems blinded to is the fact that for the vast majority of the
computing public, this is simply the *only* use they have at all for
any form of computing device.

He is not the target audience of the tablets.

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#13302

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

On Mon, 13 Mar 2017, Richard Kettlewell wrote:

> RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> quotes:
>> "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"...
>
> And yet they’ve sold very well. Could it be that lots of other people
> have a practical use for them, despite his personal dislike? Perhaps he
> should do some market research into why they’re successful before going
> into competition with them.
>
I dont' know.

I got a netbook, an Acer, in the fall of 2009.  I'd wanted something 
portable, the PDAs had died off except for high end, an iPod was a bit too 
limited but more important, controlled by Apple, I didn't want a full 
laptop, so I got a netbook.  It was last of the first wave, so it runs 
Linux and has only a 32gig "hard drive".  The ones with WIndows and 160gig 
hard drives had already hit the market, though not by much.

It was okay, but it wsa a bit bulky for portable operation without a table 
to put it on.  I had limited use of it, since I wasn't out near wifi that 
much, and no wifi at home.  A year later, I crushed the screen, it was 
under a book that I kneeled on and there went the screen, so that put it 
out of portable operation.  One of these days I'll resurrect it with an 
LCD monitor for some sort of home use.

But they hit on a cusp.  If the iPad hadn't arrived yet, it came soon 
after, followed by other tablets.  I would have gladly bought one of those 
HP tablets  when they went into clearance mode a few months after 
interruption, but I missed the deal.

I did get a Blackberry Playbook in February of 2012.  For what I wanted in 
portable, that was good, it could fit in a large coat pocket.  I wasn't 
going to be writing, so I could live with the onscreen keyboard.  It got 
better that fall when DSL and wifi arrived at home, so the tablet was more 
than to read ebooks and use when out near free wifi.

That was one thing I wanted a small device for, ebooks.  The netbook was 
too clumsy for my use, though if the keyboard could swing out of the way 
like some later laptops, that would have been okay.  I decided that I'd 
rather pay some more money and get a full tablet than a dedicated ebook 
reader.

Then in 2014 I won a Microsoft Surface 2 tablet, it's larger and more 
capable, close to a full blown system except it ran WIndows and had a 
32gig "hard drive".  And that's gotten a lot of use.  I use the desktop a 
lot less, except when writing.  I did find a keyboard that works with the 
Surfact 2, but have never bothered with it.  For the things I want a 
portable device, a tablet is what I want, no keyboard in the way.

If netbooks hadn't arrived, I'd have waited, and then gone directly to 
Tablet.  If PDAs hadn't diminished by that point, I'd have gotten one of 
those, though maybe I would have been unhappy by the screen size.  Tablets 
are really just large screen PDAs, but they came after a gap, as if they 
were different.

   Michael

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#13303

On 2017-03-12 8:53 PM, RS Wood wrote:
> 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


AT one point Netbooks made a lot of sense. I am currently traveling, I
have not one but two windows small tablets with me (and an android
tablet) I paid <$100ea for the windows tablets new and they run all my
development tools. They will also access a keyboard/mouse and USB 2T 
drive if needed.

Netbooks these days would have a lot of competition.

w..

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#13306

Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> writes:

> On 2017-03-12 8:53 PM, RS Wood wrote:
>> 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:
>
>
> AT one point Netbooks made a lot of sense. I am currently traveling, I
> have not one but two windows small tablets with me (and an android
> tablet) I paid <$100ea for the windows tablets new and they run all my
> development tools. They will also access a keyboard/mouse and USB 2T
> drive if needed.
>
> Netbooks these days would have a lot of competition.
>
> w..

Maybe.  My main machine these days is a Lenovo netbook - about a 12"
screen I think.  Decent keyboard, very portable.  I've got tablets but
they all run Android and I find myself missing my custom bash scripts,
emacs, vim, jed, joe, gkrellm, plus a decent keyboard.  I can get lots
done on tablets (esp. with a bluetooth keyboard).  But I still find
myself using this netbook almost every day.  Somehow they must scratch
different itches.

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#13310

RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> writes:
> Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> writes:
>> AT one point Netbooks made a lot of sense. I am currently traveling, I
>> have not one but two windows small tablets with me (and an android
>> tablet) I paid <$100ea for the windows tablets new and they run all my
>> development tools. They will also access a keyboard/mouse and USB 2T
>> drive if needed.
>>
>> Netbooks these days would have a lot of competition.
>
> Maybe.  My main machine these days is a Lenovo netbook - about a 12"
> screen I think.

I’d think of that as a smallish laptop, personally. I suspect some
colonization of a (formerly l-) fashionable label.

> Decent keyboard, very portable.  I've got tablets but they all run
> Android and I find myself missing my custom bash scripts, emacs, vim,
> jed, joe, gkrellm, plus a decent keyboard.  I can get lots done on
> tablets (esp. with a bluetooth keyboard).  But I still find myself
> using this netbook almost every day.  Somehow they must scratch
> different itches.

I very rarely feel any need for a keyboard with my tablet - I’d just use
a laptop or desktop computer instead for whatever task would benefit
from it.

With my phone it’s a different story, if I’m having a nontrivial
conversation while out and about then a better keyboard would be handy
ergonomically (although a nuisance logistically).

-- 
http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

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#13315

On 2017-03-13 9:07 PM, RS Wood wrote:
> Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> writes:
>
>> On 2017-03-12 8:53 PM, RS Wood wrote:
>>> 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:
>>
>>
>> AT one point Netbooks made a lot of sense. I am currently
>> traveling, I have not one but two windows small tablets with me
>> (and an android tablet) I paid <$100ea for the windows tablets new
>> and they run all my development tools. They will also access a
>> keyboard/mouse and USB 2T drive if needed.
>>
>> Netbooks these days would have a lot of competition.
>>
>> w..
>
> Maybe.  My main machine these days is a Lenovo netbook - about a 12"
> screen I think.  Decent keyboard, very portable.  I've got tablets
> but they all run Android and I find myself missing my custom bash
> scripts, emacs, vim, jed, joe, gkrellm, plus a decent keyboard.  I
> can get lots done on tablets (esp. with a bluetooth keyboard).  But I
> still find myself using this netbook almost every day.  Somehow they
> must scratch different itches.
>
I have a bluetooth keyboard/touch pad that I use on both my windows
tablets and android tablets. They are useful enough in that
configuration that I often don't bring a laptop on trips.

My android tablet has about 9 hours of battery life, My windows tablets
about 3-4 hours.  Most of the time I use the on screen keyboard for
email and casual use. Serious use I use the keyboard. I do use a handful
of thumb drives and often load tablets micro SD cards with current
projects before I leave.

w..

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#13324

On 2017-03-14, Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> wrote:
> On 2017-03-13 9:07 PM, RS Wood wrote:
>> Walter Banks <walter@bytecraft.com> writes:
>>
>>> On 2017-03-12 8:53 PM, RS Wood wrote:
>>>> From the «sent from my netbook, as a matter of fact» department:
>>>> Title: Can Crowdfunding Bring Back The Netbook? Author:

Hopefully, not

>>>> help@slashdot.org Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2017 18:44:00 -0400 Link:
>>>
>>>
>>> AT one point Netbooks made a lot of sense. I am currently
>>> traveling, I have not one but two windows small tablets with me
>>> (and an android tablet) I paid <$100ea for the windows tablets new
>>> and they run all my development tools. They will also access a
>>> keyboard/mouse and USB 2T drive if needed.
>>>
>>> Netbooks these days would have a lot of competition.
>>>
>>> w..
> w..


-- 
greymaus.ireland.ie
Just_Another_Grumpy_Old_Man

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