Insight from laptop vendors and other parties on whether small and midsize businesses really want netbooks -- and what SMBs actually do with them.
Don't Miss: What Really Matters In Notebooks For SMBs?
With all the emphasis on price and connectivity these days, you might think that netbooks would be the biggest thing in SMB laptops. In fact, the latest research shows that about 20% of laptop sales are now going to netbooks. But I have yet to see figures that break down how many of those netbooks are going to companies -- large and small -- and how many are being bought by consumers.
Perhaps that's why some laptop vendors are still trying to buck the netbook trend. Toshiba America, for example, doesn't ship a netbook.
"It's something that we're looking at," demurs Cindy Zwerling, product marketing manager for business-to-business notebooks at the notebook maker. From Zwerling's perspective, the value proposition for netbooks simply isn't there: "Why? For $300 or $400 there is no keyboard, no optical drive, and the price delta isn't that great." (Of course, netbooks do have keyboards, though they can be cramped, and while they can't match the performance of even a basic laptop, they're more than adequate for most common computing tasks.)
Are SMBs Hungry For Netbooks?
And outside of the education market, Zwerling doesn't believe that SMBs harbor a great hunger for the diminutive laptops. "We do not have a lot of customers saying we want netbooks. Everyone's asking if Toshiba is going to make one," she admits, "but they're not saying they're going to move their applications and we're going to lose their business if we don't have one."
And indeed, there's plenty of netbook user backlash, including reports of high numbers of netbook returns, especially for Linux-powered models.
Nevertheless, the netbook hype can be hard to resist. Back at CES in January, Carl Pinto, VP of marketing for digital products at Toshiba America, told Reuters that Toshiba is preparing to bring a netbook to the U.S. market. "Even if there's some cannibalization, it's still complementary," Pinto said.
And on March 10, ChannelWeb cited resellers claiming that Toshiba would launch a U.S. netbook, and said, "Toshiba confirmed that it would launch a netbook in the U.S. this year, but would not provide launch details or product specifications."
Don't Miss: What Really Matters In Notebooks For SMBs?
Next Page: Netbooks Change The Game
