Just in case you haven’t gotten the memo yet, the unofficial theme of CES this year is TABLETS. The latest company you wouldn’t necessarily have expected to launch a consumer tablet which is doing so anyway is Panasonic. The company is introducing a new line of tablet style devices under its VIERA brand name, most often associated with Panasonic televisions.
The company envisions the tablets as devices you can use to read eBooks and stream video. They’ll be designed to work with a Panasonic VIERA TV, letting you treat the tablet as a secondary display for pictures and data related to the programs you’re watching. In fact, Panasonic describes the device as a “tablet-type terminal,” which seems to indicate that it may just be a touchscreen controller and display for software that’s running primarily on your TV.
Panasonic says VIERA tablets will come in 4 to 10 inch sizes, will have shock resistant design, and long battery life.
I’ll weigh in because, well, I can’t resist these types of conversations.
Yes, Brad is throwing all his chips into the tablet ring. He is also (sorry to speak about someone else when they aren’t present at the time so I hope you don’t take this as slagging you) turning his back on netbooks in general.
Michael, you are completely oblivious to reality though. Freaking stories on a blog don’t dictate F all. Why? Visits to a freaking site don’t equate to sales! It doesn’t mean that any of these latest nutzo tablets are going to sell. Sure they may, but they may not. I would suggest 80% of people will find their dual core smartphone in 2011 as plenty for touchscreen. Why have 2 on ones self? You are actually smarter to find a small laptop to go with your smartphone.
But, Michael, you take this feeding frenzy as some kind of litmus test. That’s ignorant. I agree, this site has forgotten it’s roots and what put it on the map. This site, if only by sleight of hand, it killing off netbooks by its own right I would agree. It’s doing it slowly, but its happening. It all comes down to definitions. Brad has the 2009 notion of what a netbook is supposed to be, which is why he can’t bring himself to call anything above 10″ as a netbook. So in some way I agree with your comment but on the other hand it’s completely ignorant of the reality. Brad and others and doing to slow kill. It’s too early to say.
Did he actually say they will never die? Ha. Well smarty pants, if 11.6″ becomes the norm for secondary computers then yeah, Brad would kill them off his site. They would be gone. That’s why he has had about 2 netbook stories out of 100. Even though a majority think of 11.6″ as netbooks, you wouldn’t know it. But if you consider 11.6″ as netbooks, they aren’t dying off at all. There are MANY MANY new 11.6″ coming out. The sad thing is, you have a few fools out there who can’t see the “big picture”. My hands are clean on the killing off of netbooks and for that I can sleep at night.
BTW, speaking of tablets, can these announcements get any more boring? What if Gingerbread sucks? Then what for the tablets? I don’t dislike the direction this site has taken, but it does seem trendy to me. I don’t believe Brad is completely sold on the tablet desire. He would be remiss not to cash in on it though. Therein lies the irony of it.
Peace and god speed!
My assessment of netbooks slowly going to the graveyard is based on the sudden drop in netbook sales by dealers. Nothing to do with this site.
Netbook sales have dropped so much, according to IT retailers. Infact, prices ae dropping so much as dealers and retailers start to panic that their existing stock of netbooks won’t be taken up fully due to tablets.
Tablets are the flavour of the day. This is confirmed by countless of dealers and retailers. Give in one more year before netbooks die completely. Even the 11.6 inch will die.
This is the reality. People want something light like 300g to 700g to surf the net. I have been telling this all the while, people just want to surf the net and the tablet caters to such needs. All intensive tasks are done at home on people’s powerful desktops.
We can always come back to whether people are quivering with excitement about the tablets. As I say time will tell. I hope you’re willing to admit you’re wrong though when the time comes.
There is no proof, solid proof that interest in netbooks is dropping. Less sales don’t prove that because once you fill up on a meal, you don’t order another plate of food. People rushed to buy, have one, and haven’t bought a second one yet. How could netbooks maintain that growth? Impossible. People say doom and gloom but that’s just ignorance and I accept that.
I think you are getting confused about tablets. Ebook readers? Sure that’s a void needing filling. If tablets were so hot sh!t, how come nobody but Apple has them in their R&D labs? How is it that Apple was so far ahead? It’s because nobody knew there was the demand for them. The iPad proved there is a color ebook reader market. It’s a robust ereader, but that’s primarily what it is. Yes it can do more, but do people need more than color? Tablets need people to step up and plop down big money for features which duplicate their laptop and or smartphone.
You are completely wrong about 11.6″ or 12″ or 10.1″. They are here forever. Deal with that.
Again, if tablets were so hot sh!t then we would have them already. It’s dicey. Netbooks grew organically. The interest in them wasn’t forced fed like this tablet insanity. Tablets fill the void of ereader, except there are ereaders out there already. The fact that every company with the exception of McDonalds is releasing a tablet tells you all you need to know. They are all clones of each other, offer squat for variety and can easily be replaced with a smartphone and or laptop.
Remember, tablet = ereader? I get that. Tablet as laptop replacement? That’s wishful thinking.
Brad, you now have to finally admit, your drive to say netbooks will never die is now proven wrong. Nobody talks about netbooks anymore. Its all about tablets. Even you blog about tablets more now.
You were always adamant that netbooks will always be the best seller “portable notebook”.
Netbooks are on its way to demise.