News - Dell sneaks its way out of the netbook market

[HEXUS]

No longer offering netbook products but shall continue with netbook/tablet hybrids.

Read more.

[rymilky]

well there not that great tbh so its not a huge loss

[miniyazz]

well there not that great tbh so its not a huge loss

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[Mama Sumae]

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Moving your mouse above it should reveal the meaning, anyway its "to be honest".

[billybear]

I think it's more to do with that they have depleted their inventory of current Atom chipsets and have the new Cedar Trail/Medfield processors which should be appearing anytime soon.

[miniyazz]

well there[sic] not that great tbh so its[sic] not a huge loss

What's not that great? Dell? Netbooks? Laptops?

[crossy]

What's not that great? Dell? Netbooks? Laptops?

I'm guessing our fellow Hexus-dweller is meaning that he/she isn't that impressed with Dell netbooks. If so, then they're maybe being a little unfair - there's been precious little in the way of innovation since Asus launched the form factor (although I'll admit that the Psion 7 might have a good claim to be "first").

I'm not surprised Dell are getting out - I thought the consensus was that tablets could probably do all that most people were expecting from netbooks. Granted there's wierdo's like me who wanted to run something other than cr*ppy Windows on 'em that's not being catered for directly, but then again there's (arguably) Android or webOS for those folks.

Personally speaking, I wouldn't buy another netbook, and have actually given mine away - having replaced it with a keyboarded tablet.

[kingpotnoodle]

I'm guessing our fellow Hexus-dweller is meaning that he/she isn't that impressed with Dell netbooks. If so, then they're maybe being a little unfair - there's been precious little in the way of innovation since Asus launched the form factor (although I'll admit that the Psion 7 might have a good claim to be "first").

I'm not surprised Dell are getting out - I thought the consensus was that tablets could probably do all that most people were expecting from netbooks. Granted there's wierdo's like me who wanted to run something other than cr*ppy Windows on 'em that's not being catered for directly, but then again there's (arguably) Android or webOS for those folks.

Personally speaking, I wouldn't buy another netbook, and have actually given mine away - having replaced it with a keyboarded tablet.

Dell's stated strategy is to move away from low-margin devices, the XPS line and thin/light z series have been getting all the love recently, and Alienware continues to do well.

Their netbooks were good and solidly built but really just not as sexy as Asus units, between Asus and Acer the market is pretty much cornered.

[miniyazz]

I'm perfectly happy with their decision to focus on higher quality products, personally. They're one of the relatively few manufacturers that actually offer options like higher-resolution screens on their higher-end laptops. Nothing above 1080p, unfortunately, but when you compare that to the 1440x900 drivel found on all-too-many 17" laptops these days..

[DDY]

For what ever reason if you still want a Dell Netbook, the horrendously priced Latitude 2120 is still available for £370 ex vat/del.

[crossy]

Dell's stated strategy is to move away from low-margin devices, the XPS line and thin/light z series have been getting all the love recently, and Alienware continues to do well.

Dropping the low end is news to me - as they're still sending me the EPP deals for sub £400 Inspiron's. If they do move out of the low end then I think the replacement for the missus' Inspiron will be an HP "dv" model.

Their netbooks were good and solidly built but really just not as sexy as Asus units, between Asus and Acer the market is pretty much cornered.

Don't forget Samsung - youngest kid's got one of their netbooks (running Linux Mint) and it's a nice piece of gear (especially as it was a reconditioned one I got for £120).

[kingpotnoodle]

Dropping the low end is news to me

Was to me too, I've always gone to them for the Vostro desktops for people at work, they hit the right balance of price and features. Saw the shift to higher end covered in PC Pro though, not sure how much truth there is in it.

[crossy]

(Dropping the low end is news to me) Was to me too, I've always gone to them for the Vostro desktops for people at work, they hit the right balance of price and features. Saw the shift to higher end covered in PC Pro though, not sure how much truth there is in it.

Ditto here - used to be 100% Dell shop ... up until the point that HP bought us. Heck, I liked the Latitude's so much that I eBay'd one for myself (D620) and it was/is a great piece of kit.

Getting back to the "Dell dropping the low end" comment. If that's true then I'm sure everyone else will see that as a great Christmas present. Personally I think it more likely that they (Dell) are going to "emphasise" the high-end (=higher margin) kit, ultrabooks, Windows 8 tablets and all that kind of tot. That's not the same as "dropping the low end" - I strongly suspect that the <£400 laptops will be around for a good while yet.

PC Pro. Used to be a subscriber, but dropped it when they started getting too closely aligned to certain manufacturers, and some of the editorial comment was very suspect. I REALLY miss Personal Computer World magazine!

[Funkstar]

I'm now curious what kind of laptop I'll get from work when they eventually issue them to field techs. We were due to get Dell netbooks (and pretty bulky crap looking ones too). So hopefully we'll get something a bit better now.