UnderNetbook: A tale of two markets

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 05 March 2009 12:04

Opinion and Analysis

Advantages over cheaper netbooks include a (close to) full-size keyboard and a larger screen.

Since buyers in this part of the market generally want to use their familiar applications, the overwhelming majority will go for a netbook running Windows rather than Linux.

For now, that means XP, though I have seen Microsoft's consumer alliance manager Billy Tucker running Windows 7 beta "on a netbook you can buy in Big W."

Yes, existing Linux users will be happy to run that operating system on their notebook replacement. (It only seems like yesterday that high-spec notebooks were being positioned as desktop replacements.)

But the majority will want Windows - as shown by reports of relatively high return rate for Linux netbooks.

(Linux fans: start your flamethrowers!)

It's a very different story at the other end of the market. See page 3.