HP: Netbooks aren’t hurting sales, the economy is

HP has been selling netbooks since April of 2008, making the company one of the earliest innovators in the mini-laptop space. (Seriously, that’s how new this whole industry segment is). But despite a lot of gloom and doom projections from market watchers claiming that cheap netbook sales would cannibalize the sales of pricier, more profitable full sized laptops, HP’s CEO recently said that netbooks aren’t to blame for the company’s declining revenues.

In fact, if HP hadn’t been offering cheap options like the HP Mini 1000 to customers, HP might have lost even more money. There’s this little thing called a recession going on, and a lot of people who might not have thought twice about dropping $1200 on a laptop two years ago might be cutting back on expensive purchases. And that makes a $300 to $500 mini-laptop look a lot more appealing.

via Eee PC.net


Posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009, 4:52 pm by Brad
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  • Ohio Red
    Noticing that five or six students in an honors class had their laptops open, I asked whether any of the 20-odd students owned a netbook. Only one student had even seen a netbook, and he thought it looked like a toy. I was surprised how limited netbook penetration was among undergraduates at an upscale public university. Netbook manufacturers need to extend their reach beyond business travelers and techies who sample any innovation if the companies want to make money in bad times. For instance, get your machines into campus bookstores. Give a few to college libraries that loan laptops to students on an hourly basis.
  • angryearthling
    there is i find a high level of snobbery amongst non technical people when it comes to laptops/software. giving them something smaller/cheaper is seen as less.
  • MonkeyKing1969
    [sigh] Sure people like less expensive things. But what all these manufactures need to understand is that SMALL and LITE are also selling points. Some people want something they can carry without one of those warehouse 'back support' belt.

    Any company that thinks that netbooks are just selling because they are cheap will have a rude awakening when they keep selling. In fact beyond small and lite weight the whole idea of superior energy efficiency computers is compelling to people as well. Any company that thinks they can "go back" when the economy improves will fail.
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