Originally, according to Digitimes, Asus and MSI wanted to undercut whatever the iPad would cost by 20-30 per cent, but that was when they expected it to cost $US1000, which made it kinda easy. It’s a lot harder when the entry price is $US500 for the iPad, thanks to the fact it’s using essentially mobile guts (the A4 chip is the beefiest component, it seems, and it’s designed for smartbooks, so it’s lower power than anything in a full-size netbook).
But! Since the Asian manufacturers are sorta kinda built to compete on price, only a sucker wouldn’t expect a price war – in other words, expect to see a ton of other netbooks and slate-y things for cheaper, like $US400 or less. Ah, competition. [Digitimes]
kaydid
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 12:49 PMGOOD! Paying $700 for a netbook is stupid. They don’t have disk drives, hardly no HD space, and a processor that sucks, yet they price them as if they’re full blown notebook computers.
They SHOULD be a LOT cheaper than a regular notebook.
I can do everything on my iPhone and it’s smaller and cheaper than a netbook.
Anon
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 4:54 AMWell, even with less/weaker components a netbook is still a fully functioning notebook/laptop. Just smaller and weaker, but no real difference. That’s why the price is high. While it costs them less money to produce a laptop without a disc drive, it costs them more money to produce a smaller laptop.
Why does the iPad cost so little? Its not a notebook/netbook/laptop/computer to begin with.
If apple took one of their laptops, like the MacBook, and downsized it (remove components, dimensions) it would probably cost MORE than a standard netbook.
Alex
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 9:01 AMGood netbooks these days cost about $300~$400 with lots of HDD space of 160gb or so
It’s good that there’s gonna be a price war which we all knew when Apple announced the entry price for the iPad
I have an iPhone too.
I just wanna say an iPhone costs more than a netbook. it’s about $700 if you get it outright
and I agree it’s better than some netbooks
sam
Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 7:45 PMum…. guys? really? Go to newegg.com most netbooks sell for $300.00-$400.00… Not really a problem unless you want a powerhouse netbook, and in that case, you wouldn’t be looking at the ipad anyway…
Thomas Tran
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 12:09 AMI think netbooks will still compete well against the iPad, due to the fact that it still provides the functionality of a notebook or desktop. You can still travel with it and transfer photos from a camera too it without additional adapters. You can skype with video to friends and family, and it’s comfortable to type very long emails with them. Oh, and they are still currently cheaper than the iPad.
matt
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 2:48 AM…
its gonna start at atleast $700 here, and like, you can only do what apple wants you to do with it. like surf the web (or half of it, that’s not flash).
this does leave an interesting predicament for the win7/xp OS on netbooks, if netbook makers want to use mobile parts, they may struggle to find x86 ones.
also, if someone tried to sell even a netbook with only a 16 gig drive it would get laughed to death…
I still find the ipad a bit on the expensive side.
when I can get an ipod touch for less than half that.
and MSI already announced a tablet (like demoed it at CES) that was cheaper than the ipad, had tegra2 (so two of the CPUs in the ipad, and undoubtedly better graphics), and proper multitasking with android.
I think they’ll do fine.
however, we all know that price and tech specs, or indeed the product at all, has NOTHING to do with whether apple dominates a market, its all to do with marketing, just look at the mp3 player market. the ipod is average at best…
StevoTheDevo
Monday, February 1, 2010 at 8:42 AMHardware isn’t the problem though.. It’s the software they’re not going to be able to compete with..
Presumably Android or ChromeOS or even a merger of the 2 are the only likely candidates.