Newsletter Archives

• Dell’s dropping the 12-inch Netbook

  Posted on August 10, 2009 at 06:37 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Dell confirmed today that it’s dropping the 12-inch Inspiron Mini 12 netbook. There’s a lot of gobbledygook on the Direct2Dell blog justifying the decision – “for a lot of customers, 10-inch displays are the sweet spot for netbooks… Larger notebooks require a little more horsepower to be really useful”   but that’s all hogwash.

  Here’s what’s happening.

  Intel wants to segment the market: they want to keep netbooks clearly differentiated from notebooks. Why? Profit. In the World According to Intel, Netbooks run on the much-lower-profit-margin Atom chip, and Intel really has to fight in that market. Notebooks, on the other hand, run on a much-higher-margin Dual Core chip. Intel wants to keep the two markets highly differentiated, because the more they’re blurred, the greater the pressure on profits.

  This is the same economic force that drove Microsoft to limit the screen size of netbooks running Windows 7 Starter Edition. I talked about that in my June 4 Top Story in Windows Secrets Newsletter. As I said then:

  Microsoft will sell copies of Starter Edition to PC manufacturers only for installation on netbooks with limited processing ability. That’s defined as those using a single-core processor, running slower than 2GHz, consuming fewer than 15 watts, having less than 1GB of system memory, and using screens 10.2 inches or smaller… “People familiar with the matter say Microsoft takes in less than $15 per netbook for Windows XP once marketing rebates are taken into account — far less than the estimated $50 to $60 the company receives for PCs running Windows Vista.”

  Some people see conspiracies behind every Microsoft move, and the Starter Edition hardware throttling is no exception. Certainly, by restricting Starter Edition to netbooks with screens smaller than 10.2 inches, companies planning to build netbooks with larger screens will face higher prices and, probably, lower margins.

  Intel and Microsoft teamed up to set the 10-inch limit on netbooks. It looks like their, uh, collaboration is working – at least with Dell.

  Other 10 inch netbooks, Dell Inspiron Mini 12, Windows 7 Starter

• Windows 7 Starter to Drop 3 App Restriction?

  Posted on May 23, 2009 at 09:07 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  That’s the hot topic in Windows 7 land.

  Windows 7 Starter Edition – which will only be available pre-installed on laptops – was hobbled by Microsoft. Among other restrictions, Starter Edition only allows thye consumer to run a  maximum of three programs concurrently. As Ed Bott explained ages ago, that three application restriction didn’t include many apps that most people use all the time. It wasn’t – and isn’t – clear which apps Microsoft includes in the three application count.

  The three app restriction has always been a red herring – as best I can tell it was invented by a committee that said, in essence, “We have to find something to differentiate our more-expensive versions of Windows 7, to convince people to pay for an upgrade.”

  That’s precisely the wrong way to approach the feature set decision. Somebody should’ve asked, “What does it take to make sure every new netbook ships with Windows?” That’s the crux of the matter.

  Hobbling the maximum number of concurrent applications doesn’t add to Microsoft’s coffers. Ensuring every new netbook ships with Windows 7 has all sorts of good side-effects. Good for Microsoft, that is. MS would also benefit from ensuring that every hardware manufacturer offers Windows 7 Home Premium as an inexpensive upgrade to the Starter package: if I have to spend an extra $30 to get Home Premium, instead of the Starter edition, with my new netbook, I’ll open up that vein and send more lucre Microsoft’s way.

  (Remember I’ve been running Windows 7 Ultimate on a plain ol’ everyday Asus Eee PC 1000H for the past three months, and it works like a champ.)

  As things stand, Paul Thurrott claims that Microsoft has just decided to lift the three app limitation in Windows 7. Ed Bott tweets that the matter is under discussion, and not decided yet. (Ed’s in Redmond right now in a Windows 7 briefing/lovefest. I think Paul’s in Redmond, too.)

  My guess is that Paul’s sources have trumped Ed’s. We should know for sure soon enough.

  Windows News Three application limit, Windows 7 Starter