Dell: Netbooks not a replacement for laptops

From InfoWorld: Netbooks may have won over many users with their relatively low cost and small size, but Dell doesn't see the lightweight machines ever replacing laptops with more powerful processors inside.

"There's been some over-exuberance on this product in the marketplace," said Steve Felice, president of Dell's consumer, small and medium-size business unit, during a conference call with reporters.

"Some of our competitors have positioned [netbooks] as a replacement device and then you see feedback from customers that are disappointed when they gave up their notebook for a netbook and find that it's not quite as fast or doesn't have quite the same functionality," he said.

Waning enthusiasm for netbooks in favor of more powerful laptops was reflected in processor shipment figures reported by IDC in April.

IDC's numbers showed that Atom -- the processors found in most netbooks -- represented a lower percentage of processors shipped during the first quarter of 2010. Atom's share of the market fell to 20 percent from 24 percent during the previous period, even as the overall volume of processors shipped rose by 4.1 percent.

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