iPad numbers herald the death of netbooks

iPad vs. netbooks.You had to see the death of the netbook. The little laptops are unbearably cramped, with crappy keyboards, tiny touchpads, and screen resolutions that could make even your grandparents beg for more. Netbooks were the lame intermediary while tablets waited for their messiah, and now that they have one, the tablets are taking over.

According to a study by Retrevo, some 70 percent of netbook buyers were courted by the iPad and 30 percent made the final commitment. Though those other 40 percent still stuck with their netbooks, I’d imagine the decision was largely financial. It’s hard to beat $200 for a semi-functional computer to kick around. It’s hard to put a price on not looking pretentious, too.

That 30 percent isn’t exactly the blowout you might expect, but it is a signpost pointed at the heart of the netbook industry. Manufacturers like Dell would do well to pay attention. The great thing about netbooks was portability and nothing else. If you can get the portability with more interesting device, that netbook is going to start to look pretty crappy and you might want to look into a more powerful Lenovo notebook computer, or just go for the iPad if ultimate portability is what you’re looking for.

  

CrunchPad/JooJoo lawsuits have been filed

Chandra with the JooJoo.Arrington and TechCrunch have officially filed suit against Fusion Garage for the tablet formerly known as the CrunchPad. Arrington is confident in his position, and seemingly for good reason. He’s the only side we’ve seen hard evidence from so far, and it’s looking like Fusion Garage may have really screwed the pooch here.

If you’re interested in the manufacturer’s many missteps, you can check out Arrington’s latest over on TechCrunch. The short version is this: Fusion Garage is funded by a chiropractor (read: they’re broke). They don’t have money to both make the device and hire an attorney for defense of this suit. Bearing that in mind, pre-order cash is likely going to pay for an attorney, so you won’t be getting your tablet any time soon. Fusion Garage may also be looking at further lawsuits from other partners, as the company probably had to give away IP to get this thing out on time. That’s not good.

As I mentioned before, any kind of investment in this device is a waste of money. It’s already so messy I can’t imagine anyone would actually want to be involved with it.

Source: TechCrunch