NYTimes has a neat article describing the explosion of the eee PC and imitators/competitors in the past year. ASUS increased sales of PCs in Europe from 2.8 to 6% market share largely on the basis of the eee PC. No word on how many run GNU/Linux. The whole world of OEMs is in commotion. Some are holding back because they think it is a flash in the pan or not a worthwhile investment. Intel thinks sales of netbooks could reach 40 million in 2011. One thing is for sure, because of the lower price of these units, it pays to avoid M$. The licensing fees would eat up the profits. The world seems surprised that they can live without M$ but they can.
“IDC, a market research firm, is predicting that the category could grow from fewer than 500,000 in 2007 to nine million in 2012 as the market for second computers expands in developed economies.
Intel is projecting that by 2011, the market for the netbooks will be 40 million units a year, which is why Intel is jumping in with low-powered chips that would be used in the netbooks and the net-tops.”
Dell, of course, continues not to get it:“Dell has not been specific about the price or features of its entry, but Michael Tatelman, vice president for marketing at Dell, said he believed that the category would have limited consumer appeal.”
see Smaller PCs Cause Worry for Industry
The most worried of all is M$ because if they cannot force OEMs to install that other OS, the monopoly is dead.
Scenario: “Ma’am, this PC is $183. A licence to downgrade to XP from VIsta will be $350, or you can have GNU/Linux for free and it will do what you need.”
What would you choose?
On top of this energy. ASUS will put a minimal GNU/Linux GUI on each motherboard of all kinds of PCs… How cheap will a PC be if you do not need any drive to boot to a GNU/Linux kiosk? Wait a bit and see. ASUS is not afraid to put some boots to M$. Why is Dell so shy? In the same market where ASUS had 100+ % growth, Dell had less than 2% growth. Take a hint, Dell.
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