Mobile Dad

Techcrunch is reporting that market forecaster DisplaySearch released their findings from the second quarter worldwide shipments showing a 2 to 1 growth rate for netbooks vs. notebooks.  Europe leads the charge with 32.9 percent share of the netbook market and the US following close behind at 26.6 percent.  Does this mean the netbooks will be our mainstream PC in the near future? It depends on who you talk to. continue reading…

Engadget is reporting that Acer is moving up as the world’s number 2 producer of personal computers. Not too surprising as I write this entry on my Aspire One netbook from Acer. Many are shocked by this and I have to wonder why?  Acer reflects what mainstream consumers have long desired, just good enough quality to get the job done.  The belief that the consumer only desire the best of breed is a fallacy.  If that was true then MP3 audio would have been a failure, we all be driving luxury cars and shop only at boutique stores.  No, mainstream consumers shop at the Targets and Walmarts of the world, listening to 128kbps sampled music and stream movies from the Internet.  The reality is that if the quality is not noticeably bad, then it is good enough to be accepted as the norm.  The masses do not necessarily choose the best outcome, even I balked at the idea of streaming video, yet here I am on the couch watching The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian streaming from my Roku box.  The point is this, the world we live in is on-demand and people are more than willing to accept immediacy rather than quality, sounds familiar.  Tools built around immediacy do not slow us down and can be afforded by the masses.  That is why netbooks are perfect example of this reality.  They are cheap, easy to carry and are good enough to satisfy a mobile user.  The tech community may balk at the idea that Acer is number 2 but the reality is, the company produces cheap products that are just good enough for the masses and me.

Over the weekend, Gigaom has an interesting observation at this year’s SXSW.  It seems people are pulling out their smartphones to sync up rather than using a laptop/netbook/etc.  I am noticing this trend at airports as well.  It seems that the tech on smartphones are at the point where business tasks can be performed without the bulk.  Just as Gigaom states, this is not the end of the netbook age, just the emergence of the smartphone as a viable alternative.  Also remember, the netbook evolution is just starting to get interesting with amazing products coming from Sony and Lenovo.  As much as I love my iPhone, these netbooks make me drool:

So you want to help your spouse job hunting efforts by using tech.  First thing you want is an affordable laptop for web building and blogging.  You head to the nearest Best Buy only to be slammed with terms like netbook, sub-notebook, MIDs, UMPC.  Follow the handy flowchart provided by The Register and you too can burn $1000 for a device that reached obsolence the day it launched.  Hey it worked for me!