By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2014-10-24 22:11 (#2TPE) People want netbooks, they CRAVE netbooks. A compact, very cheap PC with adequate performance and a real keyboard And yet manufacturers are too stupid yo give it to them, all because MS licensing crippled the format.Thus we have giant phones and tablets with accessories and Google controlled "chromebooks" all desperately reaching to satisfy a market need that's been there all along. It's sad. One can't get a tablet or phone with a real keyboard, except maybe those overpriced or crippled MS things.I don't get it. The entire market is being handed to Google. Re: By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-10-25 04:52 (#2TPP) And yet manufacturers are too stupid yo give it to themAs slim as the margins were, and as high as the return rate was, I'm not so sure it's stupid at all. If they have to price them so they only just barely turn a profit on the line, then it's not worth it for them to make the products you want.One can't get a tablet or phone with a real keyboard, except maybe those overpriced or crippled MS things.Most Blackberry phones still have real keyboards, and now they can run Android apps, too. I admit, looking for Android slider phones is depressing and unrewarding. But I suppose keeping my old phone is for the best, as Google just keeps making it harder and harder to make a phone call on Android. Several additional unintuitive steps needed to add a recent number to the contact list, much more difficult to switch between recent calls, the dialer, and your contacts, and absolutely NO WAY to EDIT your contacts from the dialer... You can create one there, but if you make a mistake, you must switch to a different program entirely. This is a complete regression. [/rant]I don't get it. The entire market is being handed to Google.Actually, at least Acer's Chromebooks are just older models of cheap Windows laptops they previously sold. Maybe the Windows tax makes a huge difference in low-end hardware, or maybe Google's mega advertising for a tiny number of products gets them exposure they wouldn't have as low-end Windows laptops. Re: By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2014-10-25 05:41 (#2TPR) Your first paragraph theorizes maybe the market wasn't there, and your last paragraph says maybe Google created a forced market through massive advertising.I don't think either of those (oversimplified) things is close to true. Google hardly advertises, for one thing.Again, I say the market was always there but companies abandoned it due to collusion between Intel and MS. Atom chips, really? Can't run cheaper Windows on a screen larger than 10", really??.
Re: By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2014-10-25 04:52 (#2TPP) And yet manufacturers are too stupid yo give it to themAs slim as the margins were, and as high as the return rate was, I'm not so sure it's stupid at all. If they have to price them so they only just barely turn a profit on the line, then it's not worth it for them to make the products you want.One can't get a tablet or phone with a real keyboard, except maybe those overpriced or crippled MS things.Most Blackberry phones still have real keyboards, and now they can run Android apps, too. I admit, looking for Android slider phones is depressing and unrewarding. But I suppose keeping my old phone is for the best, as Google just keeps making it harder and harder to make a phone call on Android. Several additional unintuitive steps needed to add a recent number to the contact list, much more difficult to switch between recent calls, the dialer, and your contacts, and absolutely NO WAY to EDIT your contacts from the dialer... You can create one there, but if you make a mistake, you must switch to a different program entirely. This is a complete regression. [/rant]I don't get it. The entire market is being handed to Google.Actually, at least Acer's Chromebooks are just older models of cheap Windows laptops they previously sold. Maybe the Windows tax makes a huge difference in low-end hardware, or maybe Google's mega advertising for a tiny number of products gets them exposure they wouldn't have as low-end Windows laptops. Re: By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2014-10-25 05:41 (#2TPR) Your first paragraph theorizes maybe the market wasn't there, and your last paragraph says maybe Google created a forced market through massive advertising.I don't think either of those (oversimplified) things is close to true. Google hardly advertises, for one thing.Again, I say the market was always there but companies abandoned it due to collusion between Intel and MS. Atom chips, really? Can't run cheaper Windows on a screen larger than 10", really??.
Re: By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2014-10-25 05:41 (#2TPR) Your first paragraph theorizes maybe the market wasn't there, and your last paragraph says maybe Google created a forced market through massive advertising.I don't think either of those (oversimplified) things is close to true. Google hardly advertises, for one thing.Again, I say the market was always there but companies abandoned it due to collusion between Intel and MS. Atom chips, really? Can't run cheaper Windows on a screen larger than 10", really??.