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My personal feeling has been that Intel slipped up in the first place with Atom and netbooks. It ruined the pricing ecosystem for the higher laptop price points and it softened the hard line pricing that partners could charge. So no surprise that Intel all but let Atom die in the past couple years. Netbooks with Atom you could say are on life support in a sense. They starved Atom of any real movement forward and came up with CULV processors (failed) as what appeared to be a peace offering to their partners.

So why now do we hear this news or rumor about Intel talking about netbooks? Apparently Intel is encouraging partners to start offering things like Blu-ray 2.0 support, full HD 1080p support, PCsync, Intel Widi for netbook, wireless music support, smart connect as well as rapid start. Why all this apparent desperation and is it too late for Intel to start caring about netbooks?

I say the reason we are hearing this is quite simple. Atom is losing to ARM processors and with Windows 8 supporting ARM, what are the chances ARM will get right into that “netbook” space? You bet those are coming. They will come provided tech sites and others don’t write off the netbook category entirely before then. It would appear to me that even though Atom processors aren’t a big money maker for Intel, they are seeing ARM moving into Smart TVs and Smart TV boxes, tablets and soon to netbooks.

I’m fine with what appears to be a new concern from Intel. I’ve always insisted that netbooks can fly if they were permitted. The only limitation to what they could do was being manually limited. Technically I don’t think Atom has been able to do what it is really capable of. So I see this as Intel HAVING to bump up netbooks with support rather than WANTING to do it.

Just my opinion of course. What’s yours?

We’ve seen Dell leave the netbook space. I’ve seen a few Lenovo netbook stories and whether they will continue. I can say from my Lenovo contact, that the 4th quarter of 2011 was difficult for Lenovo netbooks. The reason? I bet it’s not what you expect. It’s because of the hard drive shortage because of the flooding in Asia. Yes, Lenovo was using the available hard drives in their more premium products. It makes sense. Netbooks with the smaller value and profit were left at the bottom of priorities when the hard drive shortage struck. My contact did confirm that Lenovo will continue in 2012 with their netbook line-up. Or shall I say their netbook model? I would suggest that Lenovo is a possible next company to drop netbooks. The reason is due to being competitive. It’s not so much a hit to netbooks and popularity, but rather an indicator that competing with Asus, Acer, HP, Samsung and Toshiba is not an easy task. With low profits in netbooks it’s fairly easy to understand loyalty can waiver.

ARM, AMD or Intel processors for netbooks in 2012. The biggie is ARM and Windows 8. That is an unknown when it comes to netbooks and whether any manufacturers will choose to build a netbook with an ARM processor. The bottom line is that more competition is better for us the consumers.

For the most part we’ve been stuck with the 1024 x 728 netbook resolution. It’s been widely known that Window hasn’t done well for readability when on small screens and high resolutions. A great evolution for netbooks could be with a nice resolution on the 10-inch screens.

I think the netbook Windows 7 Starter was somewhat detrimental. I haven’t heard that Windows 8 for netbooks will be stripped down or modified in a way like Windows 7 Starter. I think with the $299 price point, I would be willing to spend the extra if manufacturers use a normal version of Windows. It will be interesting to see.

So this has me thinking. What features would you remove from a netbook to drop the price of it? I would strongly suggest that storage is one way the netbook manufacturers can provide great deals. Again back to this new Asus netbook the X101 which comes in at $199 and has 8GB SSD storage only. With the cheap price of SD cards and USB thumb drives, the need to onboard storage is less important than price. In other words I think a lot of consumer could live just fine withe 8GB storage if that meant shaving some price off the netbook.

I think battery is a bad way to provide better netbook deals. Long battery life is what most people put in the wish list and paying less for a smaller battery seems counter productive in my mind. Leave battery size alone. Save money elsewhere please Mr. Netbook Manufacturer!

I think the other feature which isn’t needed are multiple USB ports. How many you going to use. I’m hard pressed to use more than 1 to be honest. So for me, 1 USB is fine if that meant a better netbook deal. I may be alone on that one, but if you currently own a netbook, how many times have you used 2 USB ports at the same time?

If you follow technology as I do, you hear about numbers, forecasts and pessimism for netbooks in 2012 and beyond. The one missing voice is the consumer. I can honestly say that it just isn’t netbooks that are suffering. Laptops aren’t exactly flying off the shelves and Intel has actually delayed their new processor release until Fall 2012. The reason? Manufacturers need more time to clear out their inventories of the previous Intel processor laptops before coming out with something even newer.  So taking the state of laptops and looking a netbooks with the same colored glasses, can you really say netbooks are being slammed disproportionately to laptops? I actually think they are not that far apart. I just think that you aren’t hearing the numbers in a side by side comparison. People would rather throw around the word “demise” with netbooks.

There is an irony in all of this. Experts suggest netbooks are dead or are dying right now and the ironic part is that this new Atom processor will show the biggest and most impressive improvement in functionality and performance ever. Those feeble Atom upgrades? That was then, but not now. When you get the HDMI out and improved video performance at a very cheap price for consumers, how could people NOT choose a netbook or something like an ultrabook? Don’t argue that people are going to choose a tablet over a netbook. If people do that you’re going to see some consumers going back to the store for another $100 in tablet accessories or they will buy a netbook also. The fact is tablets don’t replace laptops or netbooks. Yes the hybrid Asus Transformer is a threat to netbooks in a sense, but you have to once again consider the $$ people pay at the counter. Don’t underestimate price when it comes to a successful product. Amazon Fire anyone?

In 2012 you’re going to be seeing a major battle between the netbook category and the ultrabook category. It’s essentially expensive vs cheap. Sure there is more to the story and we will break down the ultrabook vs netbook comparison in more detail. Ultimately it’s going to come down to your needs vs your wallet.

Price

The netbooks vs ultrabook comparison is pretty simple. A netbook is built with cheapness in mind whereas the ultrabook is built with top of the line hardware and features. You could buy two netbooks for the price of one ultrabook. The price point of ultrabooks hasn’t settled just yet so there isn’t a firm price comparison. It’s pretty safe to say that netbooks will be around the $300 price and ultrabooks will start around $600. Keep in mind that ultrabooks are designed to provide the manufacturers with a higher profit margin.

Ultrabook vs Netbook Price winner? Netbook

Battery Life

The battery of the next generation of 2012 netbooks vs ultrabooks could be quite equal. Based on computing power and features it’s most likely that netbooks will provide a longer battery life than ultrabooks. The fact is that more features and better hardware means more power needs. Netbooks are the designed for long battery life and not processing power. Conservative (netbooks) vs Robust (ultrabooks).

Netbooks will remain, ultrabooks will fail. The big detractor for the ultrabook is price. When you see the advertisement in a Best Buy flyer, you see the $800 or $1000 ultrabook up against a $500 laptop. In addition you will see that $300 netbook in the same flyer. Sure Apple has succeeded with their MacBook Air and MacBook Pro but they don’t have that thick clunky MacBook model. If they had a cheaper model don’t you think people would most often opt for cheaper? You bet. The ultrabook is doomed for mainstream success based on the price.

In terms of performance,  it’s no contest. Of course an ultrabook blows a netbook out of the water. With that said, if you’re shopping for a portable laptop it’s most likely the update Atom processor netbook will suffice. Again it’s cost vs paying for what you really need. Most people don’t need what the ultrabook offers. The ultrabook is going up against a product in netbooks that is far cheaper and in fact is quite capable of giving you what you need. The ultrabook is a primary laptop which means you pay extra in a big way for the portability features.

10-Inch Asus Netbook Models:

• 101CH
• 1025C
• 1025CE

12-Inch Asus Netbook Models:

• 1225B
• 1225C

Dell is out of netbooks. Other companies have reduced their selections and or colors. Asus netbooks will be your best bet in 2012 as they have more models coming and are the true pioneers in netbooks. I think you may see a resurgence of sorts for netbooks in 2012 simply because the price point is excellent and you get a great portable secondary computer.

Sure it’s a rocky stretch for netbooks, but remember one thing. Netbooks were bred organically. The category wasn’t forced upon us like ultrabooks. The nature of the netbook means it will withstand the marketing push that begs consumers to spend more money on ultrabooks or hybrid tablets. The fact is netbooks will be going strong in 2012 and we will be following the goings on every step of the way.