The Netbook Invasion (on the front page of the Best Buy circular)

If you dig into your Sunday paper, you will discover that the front page of the Best Buy weekly circular is dominated by netbooks. That's right, netbooks are here now for the "average consumer". Best Buy presents them from the "now you're free to fly" angle. There is a trio of models that are dominating the front page, the $250 ASUS EPC900B-BLU01X, the $350 HP Mini 1030NR for $350 and the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (IM10-2886) for $400.

The EeePC is very affordable, comes with Celery (Celeron processor), 1gb of memory, 16gb solid state disk, 8.9" display, weighs just 2.2 pounds, and runs Windows XP Home. Not a bad combination if you really want to use this like a netbook, and not like a notebook-in-lieu-of-a-notebook.

The other two feature 10-incher displays, and Atom processors, along with Windows XP Home as well. One difference is that the HP Mini 1030NR has a 16gb SSD while the Dell has a 160gb hard disk. The Dell is also half-a-pound heavier, with the HP being a mere 2.4 lbs. I'm sure there are more differences, but this is not intended to be a comparison :)

So here we go, netbooks for the masses, taking the front page of the Best Buy circular, no longer hiding in the computer pages, and in the sidebars of the laptop pages, or advertised as an after-thought.

The big question is, how is this "mythical average consumer" that grazes at the big-box superstores going to react to them? Will they find them good-enough and affordable to get for day-to-day activities instead of getting a "real" laptop?

We wish we had the answer, but only time will tell...

Comments

[Ben]

I want a computer, and I want one of those netbooks! I just hope they'll be able to compete performance-wise - although I suspect they will, since the dell on that Best Buy ad has similar specs to my Dell desktop at home which runs like a charm.

[laptopfanaddict]

For basic internet tasks they should be fine, but for multitasking or more heavy duty program, you have to check them out to make sure they are good match for the stuff you want to run on a regular basis.

But you have a good point, the processors have been outpacing the needs of the day-to-day software (web, email, etc), especially if one avoids the bloated operating systems (eg Vista Premium).

[Da]

They will run anything CPU intensive, almost, as long as the CPU is a 1.6Ghz or better. I'm talking about any business application, such as PowerPoint, Word, Excell, Open Office, any browser, and they will view all your photos and play your music and DVDs too. The weak point today is not CPU power, but graphics power. Most people don't need much graphics power, just enough to display photos and work and surf. So these are truly notebooks for the masses.