14 DAY TRIAL // Netbook computer systems have become something of a phenomenon in the PC industry, providing a choice for an affordable, ultraportable solution that offers the performance support for the very basic computing applications. Over the recent months, netbooks have been widely praised for their increased popularity, with market watchers pointing to the benefits and disadvantages that they present for the industry. However, it appears that not everybody is happy with what these systems can provide and Dell's founder and CEO Michael Dell is certainly one of them.
According to a recent news-article on Fudzilla, Michael Dell had something to say about the popularity of netbooks during an appearance at a Silicon Valley social event Tuesday night.
“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. “But about 36 hours later, they're saying 'The screen's gonna have to go. Give me my 15-inch screen back.' 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 added.
It's interesting to note that, although Dell's CEO doesn't appear to be very fond of said form factor, his company is among the main competitors in the netbook space, providing users with a number of choices in terms of configuration and design. However, according to a recent study, Dell is right, as the majority of netbook buyers are disappointed with their acquisitions, due to their small screens and low performance.
“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,” Dell added.