The Microsoft kiss of death ....
Timeline:-
* Linux makes the netbook possible, millions are sold, and it's almost
impossible to order one as the suppliers run out of stock so quickly.
* I finally manage to buy three Linux units at $450 AUD each
* Microsoft begin forcing XP-HOME on netbooks
* Netbook prices double for the same or slightly more (or less) hardware
* Netbook sales plumet
begin{quote}
posted by Thom Holwerda on Wed 22nd Apr 2009 11:03 UTC, submitted by Hakime
Icon In the current economic climate, it's hard to make any sane predictions
one way or the other. While we receive continuous reports that netbooks are
the saving grace of the PC market, the light at the end of the tunnel, the
beacon of hope, the Fiona Apple among the rest of the mediocre musician
crowd, the, err, (okay I'm out of metaphors), we are now getting a report
which states that during the first quarter of 2009, netbooks have not met
their sales estimates.
The report comes courtesy of DigiTimes, which usually comes with inside
information about manufacturers in the far east (well, far east from my
perspective, anyway). For instance, Acer had expected to ship 2 million
Aspire One netbooks during Q1 of 2009, but sources claim sales in the
channels were lower. The same sources also claim that Asus only sold 900000
Eee PCs during that same quarter, short of the 1 million projected. MSI
reportedly sold 200000 Wind series netbooks. The story claims that market
saturation might account for the lower-than-projected sales.
The figures are vague, and there's little to back them up at this point.
Still, Intel did reveal they saw a slowdown in the number of Atom chips
sold during the first quarter, which may corroborate this DigiTimes story.
Still, not beating expectations is not that big of a deal, considering the
insane growth the netbook market has seen so far - even during Q1 of 2009.
Another interesting story on DigiTimes has to do with Intel's new and
upcoming Intel GN40 chipset for netbooks, accompanied by the Atom N280
processors. This chipset comes with increased 3D capabilities and hardware
video decoding, but Windows XP will not be able to take advantage of this
because the chipset relies on DirectX 10 and DirectX Video Acceleration
2.0, which are Vista-specific technologies. Windows XP does not make use of
these new capabilities - you're going to need Windows Vista for that.
Netbook makers confirmed the issue.
It seems as if Windows XP is finally starting to show its age. I won't make
myself popular here, but I'm happy for it. XP's time has come and gone, and
it's time the world moved on to more secure operating systems like Windows
Vista and Linux.
end{quote}
http://www.osnews.com/story/21351/Report_Acer_Asus_MSI_Missing_Netbook_Sales_Targets
--
If we wish to reduce our ignorance, there are people we will
indeed listen to. Trolls are not among those people, as trolls, more or
less by definition, *promote* ignorance.
Kelsey Bjarnason, C.O.L.A. 2008
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