Dell plays defense with Mini 9 netbook
A year after the Asus Eee PC began aggressively marking territory in the low-cost notebook business, the second-biggest PC maker in the world is finally ready with an reply.
The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 will be formally announced Thursday, as CNET News reported Tuesday. It’s Dell’s first foray into the netbook category–undersized notebooks powered by Intel’s Atom processor.
Hewlett-Packard, Acer, and seemingly hundreds of lower-tier players jumped in months ago to what has been certainly the most interesting development in the PC business in some duration. But is it too late for Dell to construct a meaningful impact in the category? Furthermore, is it even essential for Dell to participate?
CNET's hands-on with the Dell Inspiron Mini 9.
(Credit: CNET)
Whether that category has much potential for significant growth depends on who you ask. Gartner is predicting 5.2 million netbooks will sell that year, but reach 50 million in 2012. Rival firm IDC has a vastly different view: 3.5 million that year, 5 million next year, and 9.2 million by 2012.
The category can be confusing for the average PC user. A netbook is essentially a notebook mold factor shrunk down, but these devices don’t act as the average PC user would expect. It has a smaller screen, smaller keyboard, lower storage capacity, among other things.
That’s why Dell is taking pains to reframe consumers’ expectations of that type of device, and is throwing in a few different options.
“We didn’t build a small PC, we built an ultramobile device,” said John Thode, vice president of small-screen consumer devices for Dell. “It does a lot of PC functions, but its intent was not to emulate a PC in every aspect.”
Managing the expectations consumers have of a device in that category is a good view, but it doesn’t change the fact that it falls into the category of a netbook. (CNET Reviews like what the Mini 9 offers as a netbook, and for a full rundown of the specs, plus a hands-on review, see here.)
Price is the other reason for the reframing.
…
Original post by Erica Ogg
