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Dell Criticizes Netbooks, Praises Windows 7

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Dell Mini 10? Maybe not.

Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell must, even if only by outward appearances, love all of the products that his company makes, right?

Perhaps not, as Dell made comments that were quite disparaging towards the netbook.

"Take a user who's used to a 15-inch notebook and then give him a 10-inch netbook. He'll say 'Oh, this is so cool, it's so lightweight.' Then 36 hours later he'll say the screen's not big enough, give me my 15-inch back," said Dell, according to IDG.

Dell was relatively late to the netbook party by the time it introduced the Inspiron Mini 9, which has since been discontinued. The Mini 10 has since taken its place and has been a popular netbook.

Michael Dell later added that "a fair amount of customers" have been unsatisfied with the smaller screens and lower-performance parts.

The CEO later made more positive comments regarding the new version of Windows, promising that new software such as Windows 7 and Office 2010 will make users love their PCs again.

"If you get the latest processor technology and you get Windows 7 and Office 2010, you will love your PC again," Dell said. "And we actually have not been able to say that for a long time. It's a dramatic improvement."

33 Comments Comment from the forums
  • lemonade4 16 October 2009 03:06
    Michael Dell is Simon Cowell's brother
    Reply
  • XD_dued 16 October 2009 03:09
    But wait! Windows 7 will make everyone go buy macs, that's what the past has told us!
    Reply
  • doomhammr 16 October 2009 03:20
    Michael Dell needs to realize that Netbooks aren't full size notbook replacements.
    Reply
  • dark_lord69 16 October 2009 03:20
    I have to agree with Dell on these topics.
    Reply
  • Regulas 16 October 2009 03:21
    "Take a user who's used to a 15-inch notebook and then give him a 10-inch netbook. He'll say 'Oh, this is so cool, it's so lightweight.' Then 36 hours later he'll say the screen's not big enough, give me my 15-inch back," said Dell, according to IDG."

    He has a point and I think he is right on this one for at least most people.
    Reply
  • fulle 16 October 2009 03:28
    He's right, and I'm sure Dell's data supports his claim. Just what? A month ago? There was a survey that indicated that a very high percentage of Netbook users were not satisfied with their purchase. Reasons given were commonly performance, screen size, and so on. The bottom line is that people purchasing netbooks often do no realize what pieces of crap they are, and if they did understand netbook sales would be at least halved.
    Reply
  • acecombat 16 October 2009 03:33
    He's not really criticizing the netbook, he's just making a statement that a lot of people go for them because they look cool, then realise it's not the replacement to a laptop/PC.
    Reply
  • cybrcatter 16 October 2009 03:35
    I agree with Dell's two statements. I gave our households netbook a go for about a week, but I just ended up using my android phone and laptop in the end.
    Windows 7 is excellent, even without the "latest processor technology", though I don't find myself giddy in anticipation for Office 10.
    Reply
  • dupaman 16 October 2009 03:49
    ^I tried running Win7 on a retired northwood Celeron 2.2GHz /w 1GB RAM and a 6600GT and it was a dog. Opening windows explorer took seconds as opposed to fractions of one in xp, and scrolling through a large folder caused CPU usage to spike to 100 and become very laggy to mouse input. So while the "latest processor technology" isn't needed, you won't get a good experience with old/ultra-low-end hardware...

    Aside from that, I think netbooks are good as long as you have realistic expectations.
    Reply
  • ak47lt 16 October 2009 03:57
    I
    Reply