Is Windows killing the Netbook?

/me leads caitlyn away and feeds her delicious homemade chicken soup.

It's OK bubbalah, the rest of us understand plain English. Would you like some nice saltines with that?

> It's OK bubbalah, the rest of us understand plain English.

Actually, in this case that may not be true. It very likely that at least one person in the chain of these stories is a non-native English speaker, for whom English is a second language. Given that, any interpretation of the article may be premature. It's probably best to hold off judging until we have more information.

The chain of events is unmistakable, though.

Day one: ARM EeePC running Android on display Day two: ARM EeePC running Android nowhere to be found Day two: Asus corporate announcement that ARM Eee PC is "not a mature product" and that development is halted due to lack of "engineering resources" Day two: Apology issued

I don't see how this can be interpreted in any way differently than I and the authors of the various articles have interpreted it.

kt: Thanks, but somehow I don't think your lack of comprehension means I need some extra luck. I definitely don't need chicken soup.

Shih: "I would like to apologise that, if you look at Asus booth we’ve decided not to display this product"

caitlyn, I strongly recommend you take some rest. Chicken soup helps...

Why not send a mail to this Mr. Shih or some other exec or making a phonecall? Is it hard? (Last time I tried to reach Asus in Taiwan it was).

sorry caitlyn, I was being too clever. what I meant was 'some arguments are not worth the bother; let's go have a nice snack and a good laugh over the idea that Tony Soprano on stage with Mr. Shih could mean anything other than Microsoft is pulling the strings yet again.'

OK, now I agree we don't need to ask Asus or Mr. Shih; they say "it's not mature" and also an Intel exec was next to the Microsoft one, which basically tells all I wanted to know.

"It's not mature."

That doesn't really narrow it down. Which version are we talking about again?

We're talking abount an Asus EeePC with a Qualcomm Snapdragon (ARM) CPU running Android. That's what "isn't mature" even though it was getting rave reviews at Computex the day before. That's what Asus pulled from the display. That's what Mr. Shih apologized for showing.

tuxchick: I haven't had chicken since 1984. Meat (except fish) turns my stomach. It's actually a genetic condition. I'm all but vegetarian.

Quoting:That doesn't really narrow it down.

Exactly. It's a lame and probably invalid excuse; when Intel / MS execs are sitting right and left of you; crawling back in the hole where Intel and MS want you to be. It's a surrender; calling your very _own_ products (with a different OS; I agree) immature.

Therefore we don't need to contact them as to how we should interpret this move. This company Asustek is too immature to sell their customers what they want. They're being childish and selling _their_ customers what Dad Intel and Mom Microsoft want. Older brother Qualcomm proves to be mature though, by showing something which Asus cannot offer, even while Qualcomm used some Asus hardware. If I were Qualcomm, I'd call Quanta/Compal to sell these devices myself.

Hans: Thank you! I don't see how anyone can interpret this any other way. Asus certainly wasn't apologizing for not showing the laptop. They were kowtowing to MS.

That was supposed to be a sardonic comment. Oh well, winnafyoo, loozafyoo.

I have yet to see any version of Windows that could be called "mature." Ever since Linux 1.0, it has been more mature than whatever version of Windows was the latest at the time.

me2 gus, my comments weren't about soup.

Yeah, but it's more pleasant to discuss soup than to discuss Microsoft. Microsoft gives me indigestion.

OK, my new article on the subject of how Windows is causing the high return rates for netbooks recently reported is at:

http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/06/high-netbook-return-rat...

I've submitted it to LXer.com so hopefully it should show up soon.

That's a well-written piece. Summarizes everything nicely.

Thank you!

Sadly, I expect it to have zero impact and someone already commented making excuses for stores. Oh well...

I don't agree with his comment. I know for a fact that in some cases the stores have a margin of zero or less. It's the extras that they want to sell. I doubt the margin is much smaller than it was on my most recent $400 laptop.

You're absolutely right, bigg. Feel free to express that in the comments section of the actual O'Reilly article (hint, hint) :)

I thought about it, but then I'd end up in additional discussions and it would eat even more time than I spend here. About three weeks ago I decided to stop posting in response to everything I see. Not that there's anything wrong with the O'Reilly site, it's just a slippery slope.