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One issue the article doesn't touch on is the various restrictions Microsoft and Intel put on netbooks (to protect their margins related to other PCs, I believe
by fpgeek 14y ago
One issue the article doesn't touch on is the various restrictions Microsoft and Intel put on netbooks (to protect their margins related to other PCs, I believe). I'd say those were at least a contributing factor (if not the underlying killer) because those restrictions made it much harder for netbooks to change as the competitive landscape did.
- crdoconnor 14y agoI'd say that was the killer full stop. I would dearly have loved to have kept on buying netbooks, but they're still at 2GB RAM, (mostly) one core and 1024x768 even 3-4 years on. Microsoft put that ceiling there, not Apple.
- hollerith 14y agoThat's a little misleading: the ceiling applied only to the discounted version of Windows. Any manufacturer who wanted to sell netbooks with better specs could have sprung for the full-price Windows license.
- Shorel 14y agoWhat you suggest is not financially possible given the tight margins for netbooks, and MS knows this. They would essentially be paying their customers for each device and then losing money with each machine.