Discussions

Hi this is Moshe
Pleas look at my post.
Comments will be appreciated.
http://www.wepc.com/vote/view/dream/7362/William_Gibson_Cyberspace_Machine

The size is really based on portability, meaning if it is small enough to carry in your pocket. If it is there is a strong market for a pocket laptop if it had a touch type keyboard. Anything larger where you would need a bag to carry it will be impacted by the screen size. Once you have to carry it what is the difference carrying a 10" to 17"? they all need a bag to carry.

If they made a Netbook with a size able to be carried in a large inside jacket pocket the mobility of it is more important than screen size as long as it has a real keyboard.

A 10.1" LCD is the smallest I'd consider. I think even 8.9 is too tight and 7" might as well be a damn smartphone screen!

Call me picky but I don't get the rage behind the ultra, ultra small stuff. It all needs to be functional too, otherwise what's the point, unless it's a kid's machine like an OLPC-targted product.

Dale, I feel the same way. In fact, if you check out my other posts, you'll see I dedicated one to notebook keyboard quality. (Enhancing the notebook computing experience)

At the time though, those 128K Macs were cutting edge--there was no "desktop publishing" otherwise.

It is not so much the screen size but having a good keyboard to me. I could easily use a computer with a small 4-6" screen but only if the keyboard enabled me to type good. A thumb keyboard or pen input is not what I want no matter how large the screen provided.

There has not been a really good pocket laptop and that is what I would like to see. A touch type keyboard netbook easy to type yet small enough to carry everywhere.

I think you raise an interesting point about how the computer market operates, I think many people knew before the Eee PC was released that they wanted something more basic from a laptop, the web browser for these people was the application they would use 95% of the time and would become the premise under which the Eee PC was probably developed. However smaller laptops before the Eee PC came at a premium price defeating the 'basic'ness people were looking for, Dell 15" Inspirons dominated the sub $500 scene at the time.

Your conclusion is accurate and the slightly larger netbooks offered now are welcome. If was to offer some criticism I would like to have seen some speculation on what you expect to happen to this trend, will these new bigger netbooks stay the same size? Or is the market still trying to find the sweet spot.

It amazes me that people put up with the 9" screens of the Macintosh 128K while they were doing the Desktop Publishing thing in the 1980s.