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2007: the launch of the Asus eee-PC created a market in ultra-portables. Almost four years later, the popular press would have you believe it's a market that came and went. They don't explain why two of my local supermarkets are pushing HP-Compaq netbooks at £199, and there's a thriving sector of on-line retailers promoting refurbished netbooks for even less. Meanwhile, the big manufacturers continue to push shiny hand-bag sized toys into higher-margin price ranges. Somebody must still be buying them.
2007 : le lancement du eee-PC d'Asus a créé un marché pour les ultra-portables. Presque quatre ans plus tard, la presse populaire voudrait que vous pensiez que c'est un marché que a existé, mais qui n'existe plus. Ils n'expliquent pas pourquoi deux des super-marchés près de chez moi vendent des netbooks HP-Compaq à £199 (environ 225 €) et qu'il y a tout un groupe prospère de vendeurs en ligne qui proposent des netbooks rénovés pour moins encore. Et, pendant ce temps, les gros fabricants continuent à vendre des jouets clinquants de la taille d'un sac à main pour des prix qui leur garantissent des bonnes bénéfices.
Des gens doivent encore les acheter.
I'm looking at my immediate circle of acquaintances. There's five of us looking at small, lightweight mobile devices, having a proper keyboard, decent screen, wifi, and good battery life. The answer we seek is minus sim-cards, expensive data plans, and pretensions to be a phone. It's a second or even third computer, good enough for the kid's homework - or mine - that can get us on-line via a hot-spot, whilst being portable enough for a plane or train. With a cheap office suite, it also plays just enough media and low-resolution games to keep us amused, but it's not our gaming or photo-editing machine, unless you want to tidy up your Facebook photos before posting.
Je pense au cercle de mes bons copains. Nous sommes cinq à regarder des appareils portables, petits et légers, avec un vrai clavier et un écran décent, wifi, et une batterie ayant une bonne durée de vie.
La réponse que nous cherchons n'a pas de carte sim, ni de plans de données chers, encore moins de prétentions d'être un téléphone. C'est un deuxième ou même un troisième ordinateur, assez bon pour les devoirs du petits - ou les miens - qui peut nous connecter au net via un hot-spot, tout en étant assez portable pour un avion ou le train. Équipé d'une suite bureautique peu chère, il lit juste assez de média et peut exécuter juste assez de jeux à basse résolution notre plaisir, mais ce n'est pas prévu pour nos jeux ou la retouche de nos photos, à moins que vous ne vouliez faire le ménage dans vos photos Facebook avant de les mettre en ligne.
That answer is not an iPad, or an Android tablet. We either don't do the Apple way, can't justify the expense, or simply can't afford it. At the bottom end, these tablets are glorified smartphones, and, what the heck, the smart people have got one of those already. Besides, smudgy fingerprints on a touch-screen keyboard never struck me as any kind of advantage.
No, there are plenty of consumers who aren't into technology like us, who don't want the clutter of a full-sized PC in the house. There are silver-surfers and sofa-surfers; students; 'road-warriors' trading on the move, and freelancers like me for whom the 17-inch, wide-screen, thigh-incinerator, is simply a waste.
So I've bought a netbook, as has a friend who runs a training company - a techno-sceptic, as has Dave Wilkins from the podcast - who had no budget, but a need for portable computing. Two more friends are looking to buy, one of whom is allergic to technology, the other allergic to carrying heavy objects.
The next question is what to run on it? The end of the long tail of Windows XP is in sight, although you find far too many XP installations which are now effectively out of support. Windows 7 is in the ascendant. The machines are powerful enough to run it, multi-tasking office, and browser and email clients. It seems the early experiments in Xandros and Linpus-Lite Linux are about done, not that I'm sorry.
But I am finding a number of the refurb's pre-loaded with a thing called Ubuntu 10.10, if only to bring the price down. Who would have thought it? Go forth and evangelize, my children.