Status of Laptop Industry - My disappointments

While this is not exclusively hardware related i think this is the best place to put this:

The Bad:

1- No real globalisation for costumers choosing models. While big markets have abundance and flexibility, small markets have a much lower number of models sometimes even with wacky and even contradictory specs. Why anyone in world couldn't choose their specs in major manufacturers even if it is an english model?

2- Isn't about time that Microsoft stops localised versions only of OS? Are we globalised or not? Why can i just go to the webstore of a big manufacturer choose the hardware recipe i want with model i choose like an american does and then switch the OS to my local? Even if i only have one time to choose.

The Ugly:

4- Screens still not up to outside use. It is sad state of affairs that technology is still not up to be employed outside with highly reflective screen in majority of laptops. Will simple telephones kick laptops?

4- Noise. At any time with 35ºC ambient temperature a multimedia laptop with a dual core shouldn't need fans if it is just playing music in winamp or any other player. A radio from 50 years ago doesn't needs fans, a laptop shouldn't need either for that. Heat evacuation is disappointing in most models.


The Good.

5: Prices have being going down, and CPU power have evolved at good rythm.

 

How about Battery life? Battery life has certainly improved over the past few years but it could be a lot better. Batteries should be made so it can power a laptop for a long time on "standard" and not ULV processors, with multimedia playing, high screen brightness, etc.

 

eRiN3 i feel -might be wrong*- they are pushing the best they can in that area. I don't feel they are pushing the best they can in areas i have noted above.

We can just comment better in our own experiences. For example i had a Clevo 17" for 4-5 years with roughly one hour battery life. I have a DV7 for 9 months that has almost the triple battery life. So for me doesn't seems industry is ignoring this issue.

 

I'd like to add that laptops have been slowly eating away at the desktop market and laptops today are being considered more as a desktop replacements by users. I don't have a problem with heat and fans because laptops today tend to push the extremes on what they can do within a limited space.

I have a Dell Vostro V13 and that thing is so small and thin, it's amazing and the motherboard is equally amazing as it's about 4" long.


I'm not too disappointed in the overall laptop industry with the exception of the ridiculous 16x9 screen format to take advantage of Hi-Def movies and glossy screens which the OP referred to. I personally love glossy screens but it should not be standard on most laptops, it should be an option. But since laptops are becoming more and more popular and are replacing desktops you can see the move to glossy screens as a standard because they stay at home more rather than getting used outside.

 

So, it sounds like you're disappointed because you cannot buy a global model of a super-thin and super-light notebook with awesome screens for outdoor use, generates no heat, has no fans, and has unbelievably high battery life. Believe me, everyone wants that laptop. But the technology we have today cannot deliver on that.

The reason that you have localized models (instead of a global model) is because of language, support, and distribution issues. The reason that screens aren't very good outdoors is because the screen technology that IS good outdoors is incredibly expensive (OLED), or heavy and battery-consuming (plasma). The reason that you have loud fans is because your laptop has powerful parts in it that generate heat (CPU, GPU, motherboard chipsets, hard drives). If you want a silent / fanless model, then you can sacrifice power for low heat, and buy yourself a nice Atom-powered netbook.
And the reason that laptop batteries last for only a few hours is because we are using LiIon battery technology.

We aren't using those technologies because they are the best that we have... we are using those technologies because they are the best consumer affordable technologies that we have. And based on the two notebooks you mentioned that you own, I'm guessing that affordable is something that's important to you.

 

The reason that glossy screens are popular are because they are an inexpensive way to improve image quality (color vibrancy and contrast ratio). Matte screens actually work by diffusing light so that it scatters in multiple directions. The problem is that it diffuses ALL light, including the "light" that is part of the image on your laptop display.

The only drawback to glossy displays is that they can be distracting for some people in environments where they cannot control their lighting (e.g. outdoors). However, considering that the vast majority of people use their laptops indoors, glossy screens aren't as that big of a deal for most people.

For example, see this image from Wikipedia. The left-side is a glossy coating, whereas the right side is a matte coating. The yellow bar indicates where a fluorescent light was shining into the display. Note that the glossy left side has better image sharpness, darker blacks (and therefore better contrast ratio), and more controlled white levels once you move beyond the reflection. To get the same level of image quality on a matte display would require a much more expensive display.

 

Disappointed by you kent1146... misrepresenting what i wrote.

Where i claimed that i wanted a no fans, "super-thin", "super-light" laptop?
Where have i written about weight?
Where i questioned battery life?
Where i have written about size and how much thin a laptop should be?

If that is the best you can do don't bother came here to this thread again.

If a laptop is only playing some mp3 it should not be pushing "extremes" so should not need a fan operating. It defeats its propose.

 

Wow. You're a jerk.

Don't worry, I won't be coming back.

 

Well to get the best of both worlds in terms of notebook screens look at the X201 Tablet. They use a glossy screen but have a purplish reflective coating effectively killing all reflections.

This is a shot I took in our studio with the standard screen on one side and the glossy/anti-reflective screen on the other.

 

If you want to listen to mp3 then get a ipod. no fan, no heat, many many hours of battery life. ipod is the best solution for you.

 

Wait, is the glossy screen w/ anti-reflective coating on the left and the right is glossy w/o anti-reflective coating (standard/normal screen)? Or is the right matte screen (anti-glare)?

 

Let's not forget about the horrific move to 16:9 ratio screens instead of 16:10.

 

I think that's more due to price than technology as not many people would want to pay $10,000 for a laptop?

Screens are getting better for outdoors use. But they're more available on workstation and heavy duty laptops. Still, competing with the sun is a major undertaking.[/quote] The reason that you have loud fans is because your laptop has powerful parts in it that generate heat (CPU, GPU, motherboard chipsets, hard drives). If you want a silent / fanless model, then you can sacrifice power for low heat, and buy yourself a nice Atom-powered netbook.[/quote]All components need to be cooled. There no way around this.

Battery technology is a major setback in a great deal of technologies. Electric cars being the biggest.

 

Is the thread open only to the 5 points you stated in the first post? The picture's alot bigger than the limited number of annoyances you're factoring in. You're commenting on the status of the industry as a whole. To address those limited points:

1) You're talking about markets, not the manufacturers. Manufacturers don't have to go anywhere in the world they don't want to. There's no incentive to localize to a small market if it costs them more to localize for the market than they'd ever make in profit. Additionally, market forces, licensing, and business laws apply that can limit what a manufacturer can do and sell in a given region.

2) Localized versions are a money maker for MS. What you see as a pain in the butt is a couple extra bucks for MS, so where's the incentive? Also, localization isn't just a matter of machine translating for zero cost. It takes time and man hours, and still ends up being imperfect most of the time. Add on top of that, the manufacturer is the one deciding which version of the OS to sell within a region. Buying a handful of localized OS licenses for OEM install to a small market costs significantly more than the original english OS in much greater bulk.

3) Been addressed.

4) The computer is doing alot more than merely playing music. In Windows, a significant number of background processes are going on that, if disabled, would somewhat cool off the machine, but also probably crash it. It's also essentially a closed box that needs fans to keep cool. Not even the glorified iPod/iPhone/iPad is immune to thermal issues. The difference is the heat is dissipated by conduction. Still, if that's your pressing need, grab some portable battery powered speakers. Using a computer to do nothing but play music defeats the purpose of having a computer, and is ultimately just taking a sledgehammer to a penny nail.

5) Addressed.

 

Bullit I agree completely with your assesment.While there is always room for improvement sometimes we have to step back and look at the big picture.Looking at my miracle 11.6" CULV notebook I can stop thinking that only 4-5 years ago to get comparable performance I needed a quarter of a room 4-5 separate devices and a maze of cables.Not to mention a ton of money.Compared with other industries(automotive-apliances-aerospace e.t.c) the computing industry has made great advances...And again there will always be legitiment complains and room for further advancement....

 

@Bullit AND @kent1146

WHOA, chill for a bit. I'm sure that more than a little was lost in translation. There's no need to take offense at each other's comments.

Back on topic, I'm personally most disappointed at the current panel lotteries that we're put through. I'd prefer not to buy a notebook that sports whatever crap display happened to be cheapest.

 

To me, woofer00 has it most on point with this issue. While I do understand the disappointment, this is about "money" and moving market to create "more money" so you push out the technologies more slowly.....

A lot of technology is already out there but with the interest stated above and then you have to keep in mind, some of these items need a lot of market to bring the price down (remember lcd's? how expensive they were)

There are a lot of factors that come into play on this issue but to me these are the two biggest

1. Keep the money coming in by slowly introducing technologies
2. Wait for industry adoption of certain technologies so that the prices come down in order to squeeze more profit out of a given product

 

My guess is that when dealing with computers, it's best to wait 3 to 4 years before buying a new one if you want to see a measurable increase in performance/efficiency.

The technology is not the problem, money is.
We have the tech to create laptops that far surpass the current ones in processing, storage, battery longevity etc. but there's just simply 0 incentive to do so because it's easier for companies to make huge profits off small revisions (crumbs if you will) over long periods of time and milk as much money as possible from the consumers.

This trend will continue for a long time if something is not done to alter the present state of affairs

 

I understand where you're trying to go with this but... 4-5 years ago was 2006-2010... even then there were laptops that were probably as strong as your 11.6" CULV (albeit much bigger and bulkier). Try going back further .

Just to clarify, I do know what your main point is, your slight exaggeration irks me a little ><.

 

I don't know why you asked that eRiN3 came with Battery life and Rodknee w/ 16:9? Like i said above other persons will have other experiences and complains and praise.

I am talking about laptop industry - everything is relevant from OS choices, to markets, sales, to hardware. Laptop manufacturers drive the industry, they push, influence their partners, they think about alternatives experimenting more or less new technologies. You have a point for countries that don't have the manufacturer representation. But selling an English* version worldwide to countries that already have the manufacturer i don't see the problem.

*if Microsoft stops their language cornering, putting a language option in Home version that even ends.

Yes it is a money maker because Microsoft have no close competition.
Just that, it doesn't make Microsoft or anyone spend more.
The localized versions have to be made anyway.
If you buy the Ultimate Win7 you can change it to any language. The Home versions don't have that option.

Yes. From memory recent big jumps were the change from unicore to dualcore and when the 4Gb memory for all arrived. To follow: SSD's, USB 3.0, multiple cores.

A laptop should be able to make that without problem. A mobile phone/PDA are approaching everything that a laptop have in a much smallish case. Mainstream CPU's should be able to throttle back to a level where they can stay without fans while still playing music.

Btw today Amazon have this in starting web page promoting 3º Generation Kindles:

 

That's because Kindles use E-Ink, not an LCD. The problem with doing that for laptops? Low refresh rate, monochrome only displays won't play very nicely with consumers.

 

Enter Mac's iPad! Can someone explain to me again why I need one of these?

 

Ok ! ! !Let's say 8-9 years or whatever it takes to get you de-irked .

 

I completely agree with Kent. I also think your a jerk too.

 

buttons252 i am okay to be considered a jerk by kent

and you.

-----------------------------------------------

Yes that is true MGS2392 e-ink is different from LCD's but shows the fast evolution of Kindle.
Now that the performance CPU/GPU race might take a break- i think we are at point that race for performance - more RAM, more CPU power- starts to show diminishing returns for most common applications, it is possible that industry will start to look at those annoyances: screen quality/format, outside use, fan noise in general use, battery.
But i don't expect chance in OS side and sales side if there is no threat from Linux/Apple/Google.

I'll not be surprised that some of phone/PDA makers will look at laptop market if they detect a continuous vulnerability.

Let them try at least the market will show if they are right or wrong.
I look at almost every market bet as positive for us consumers even if it is not something for me.

 

They can make laptops nowadays that are thin, fast, have reasonable battery life and great screens - Sony Z series is testament to that. The problem is that doing all of that right is shockingly expensive and Z series is dear as it is.

The market for laptops isn't governed by the 50 or so people in your country that can afford to shell out 3 grand for a laptop so what you see is alot of builders offering a range of laptops with compromises so you have the choice of sacrificing things that are not important to you in order to shave the price down to something you can justifiably spend money on.

At the end of the day, if you want a quad core cpu and gaming graphics card in a tiny notebook chasis you are going to get punched in the face by the laws of physics and you will have to find some way to dissipate the incredible amount of heat generated. That is possible to a point but it'll cost you for a cooling solution that is low noise and non intrusive. It'll cost you in terms of weight and portability. Clevo can put a 6 core 980x desktop cpu into a laptop chasis and make it run cooler than a 930 but at 5.4 kilos it is not portable and necessarily fat so it isn't aesthetically appealing. Thats just the price you pay if you want a notebook with more computational power than most people will ever know what to do with.

So buying a laptop is all about making compromises you can live with day to day and thats just the way it is. If you want everything, you'll have to pay for it and most people don't have the means to do that so we settle with fast but hot and loud and short battery life. Or slow but cool and quiet and long battery life. Or big and heavy with a great screen and no portability. Or small with a not so good screen with lots of portability. The choice you make ultimately comes down to what you want to do with your notebook so its different for every person.

There are a few notebooks that give you a great all round package of features and performance like Z series but they cost so much money that most people cannot even consider buying them. Furthermore, these things are not the big profit makers for Sony et al. The stuff that makes those companies their money is the cheap stuff and its like this in alot of industry. I'm big into synthesizers and the age of all powerful analogue synths with multi thousand dollar price tags is over. Nowadays the money makers are the Doepfer Dark Energys, the Microkorgs. The cheap compromises that are affordable to the masses.

 

Hayte . My complains were limited to language limitations put by Microsoft which limits the models many small countries can have, screens reflection outside(not even necessarily direct light), fan use with minimal CPU work. Basically was that.

 

I'm basically disappointed the lack of high resolution screen in 15" form factor without going to gaming class notebook. I bought My 14" ASUS 3.5 years ago with 1440x900 screen resolution, and earlier this year I was so disappointed with so many laptop (even 15" ones) have 1366x768 for screen resolution.

 

What... The... Hell...?

MP3 is not extreme? Do you have any idea how complex MP3 algorithms is? That piece of junk radio from 50 years ago can't even decode MP3 with all its vacuum tube powers even if its life depended on it!

I'm sorry, but you have absolutely no idea just how powerful and complex technology we have today are. The fact that we can cool 3Ghz quad-core processors with mere air cooling solutions is a minor technological miracle in and of itself!

If you don't want fans when listening to music, get yourself a PMP or... a radio.

*Facepalm*

 

No it is not extreme for current CPU's. CPU don't goes up playing mp3 more than 10%, many mp3 players with a much more restricted chassis don't need fans.

 

On the screen commentary, I've become a bit of a fan of glossy screens, where I thought I wouldn't in the past. They do have reflections, but the increased contrast and pop are very nice benefits. Of course many such screens have vanished on models, due to the outcry against glossy screens. But having dealt with both, I've come to appreciate the added advantages of the glossy screens at a time when they are dwindling from the market. /sigh

On the "how far have we come" issue you fail to consider the costs that have come down so far. 10 years ago a laptop could run 5-10k USD for a fraction of the power and features you find in a 1k laptop now. So while technology exists to give you many of the things you crave, the cost would have you quickly rejecting the price. The same goes for the OS software. What you want can't be delivered for a price you would accept. One version, or limited versions of a software is less to maintain, less to develop, less to mass produce, less to distribute, and less waste from unused copies when a new version comes out. The price is less individualization.

As for the more elegant of your hopes, those will be realized when the technology that produces them (super bright screens for example) is capable of doing so at a price level mass consumption is willing to pay for.

 

1. Well that's how businesses work. Small markets have lower incomes hence it will be riskier for companies to establish themselves as "the pie isn't big enough".

2. I'm not sure what you're talking about here and what your definition of what globalisation/globalised is. Are you saying that English should be the default language for retail OSs? If so, then you're gonna have a lot of trouble with other nationalities. It's Microsoft reaching out to the consumer - it has to anyways, coz if there was a competitor who offfered as OS which the default langauge set to the native country, then Microsoft loses market share.

3. Screens are demand-driven components. Majority of laptop use is indoors hence less R&D for screens that are good enough for outside use plus there are alternative devices for outdoor multimedia/computing use.

4. Thing is, unlike an iPod, the laptop has other parts that generate heat hence the need for fans. If you want to play music without the fan noise, use your mp3 player.

5. Well, HDDs and most laptop components are at the end of the product-life cycle and hence are cheaper to produce giving manufacturers the able to sell at lower prices. Obviously were talking about the price of average consumer laptops here.

 

I'd like to see more improvements on the battery life - performance ratio, specifically in 12" to 13" notebooks.

 

My biggest grip continues to be what it has always been: the continued lack of upgradeablility. Without a doubt my next laptop will come from the manufacturer who attends to this limitation the greatest.

 

totally agree.
imho if laptops were much easier to upgrade, they would put a serious dent on (low to mid end) desktop sales. i think the most asked for upgradeable feature i hear of is gpu upgadeability. other parts are more or less upgradeable depending on model. upgradeable parts is mainly why i got my sager.
unfortunately the industry seems to thrive on this non-upgradeable paradigm forcing users to buy new laptops in 2years or so.

 

Apart from embedded graphics cards, many laptops are surprisingly upgradeable these days and theres MXM in future which looks promising. Also, most laptops are much easier to upgrade than desktops since you can get access through the backplate. On a desktop you need to open up the chasis and dig around the mainboard.

But the biggest issue is and always will be heat. I used to have a Shuttle XPC and the criticism has always been that you have limited upgradeability but heres the rub. It has nothing to do with lack of slots. Invariably your upgrade path is limited by the power draw on Shuttle's tiny 240w to 300w PSUs so I used to go to techreport and go straight for the power consumption charts. Literally anything above a certain threshold had to ruled out, no matter how good the bargain was.

Temps could build up alarmingly by going from a previous generation low end card to a current generation high end card resulting in numerous jury rigged cooling solutions (case mods, home made push/pull fan configs etc).

All of that is even more difficult to do in a laptop because case modding has a bigger effect on the structural integrity of the case and its just a much much smaller space than a Shuttle XPC which is already a much much smaller space than a full ATX desktop PC.

Laptops will never be as upgradeable as desktops. They cant be without turning into desktops. Besides, if look at the past 5 years of advancement in cpu and mainboard design alone the amount of redundancy is staggering. Intel has put their memory controllers on die, gone from socket 423 to LGA775 to Socket M and now we have Socket 1366 and 1156, AMD have gone from socket 939 to AM2 to AM2+ to AM3 so the ram you bought 2 years ago is now useless. I can't even find ddr1 ram for my socket 939 pc anymore and its only 4 years old.

 

Upgradeability is the last item on my list of 'needs' when shopping for a new notebook. I buy a certain notebook based not only on the components included, but also on thier suitability for my uses for the next few years.

But mostly, I buy them for the engineering that has gone into them to put so much power into such a compact size with battery life, comfort and heat generation balanced to achieve a real advance over a last generation notebook. This, will never be 'upgradeable'.

Each time I have bought a new notebook, I can fully appreciate the new platform's advances compared to the old unit. The old notebook is so outdated, that it is actually costing me money to keep it around!

No, I need to upgrade the RAM and the HD's to the best that is currently available (and I usually do that right at the beginning of a notebook's life cycle), but if Intel (AMD cpu's are no place for a notebook, currently) can bring a new platform out every six months with noticable and obvious advances, then I for one will not be complianing about the 'non-upgradability' of notebooks - I will simply sell the 'old' tech and buy the newly available features that the next generation has on offer.

If I could easily change CPU's and/or grahics cards in my current notebooks, sure I might - but it would not be the notebook I bought originally - it will be incrementally faster, but it would also be hotter, with worse battery life and with a higher chance of failure (from the increased power/heat) and also be heavier than it needed to be from the time of purchase (bigger power supply, etc.) 'just in case' I upgraded.

Yeah, even in a desktop, upgrades only take you so far before it is not economically feasable to just simply get a new system. With a notebook, the disadvantages are even bigger and the performance results are smaller too.

 

I 100% agree on this, and it's fixable. There is next to no reason (aside from the change in internal memory controller) to change sockets when going from one chip manufacturing generation to the next. At minimum they could keep the same socket for every 2 or 3 generations. But we all know why that's not being done.

Upgradeable graphics cards? I mean the real deal not the hack system we have now where we pray it works with the BIOS and slots that are in the notebook, chopping away metal bits that don't fit.

And screens? That is really the cat's meow when it comes to the vendors trying to grab your money. Screens are super easy and the interface for them has been around for ages. Displayport internal may take over, but aside from that, they all use the same interface. There should be several screens available and they should be 2 screws and a plug in away from changeover.

CD's also come to mind. For a while they were "unbolt a screw and slide the drive out" and that seems to have stopped on a lot of models coming out.

Anyway - lack of upgradeability, especially when the industry is making less and less dramatic changes between certain generations is kind of crazy.

 

still not yet water proof
still not yet fire proof
still not yet thief proof
still incapable of shooting out rockets
still can not make phone calls
still can not get me laid
still can not print papers
still can not play ps3 games
still can not be used as bullet vest
still can not be used as a transport
still can not be used as chopping board
still can not play VCR
still can not make me cheese burger
still can not make me dinner
still does not do me laundry
still does not satisfy me in bed


damn laptops are still useless

 

and by the way, who listens to mp3 by carrying around a laptop?

 

It is enough that Microsoft gives languages packs that has in Ultimate to Home Premium, that way any laptop model can be converted to any language.
With just that step any person in world world can choose their preferred model, instead of only the big markets having that possibility.

There are some applications called winamp, foobar
...After lunch i like to rest, i just control Winamp with HP portable command w/half an hour in sofa listening just to some music, same at night. The AMD dual core i have in it only drops to 800mhz, there is no need of 2x800mhz to do something so light, a 450mhz celeron play mp3. A laptop should be function flexible. It would be an advantage for movie playing too.

I see your point, specially for those that have to replace laptops often but i end up replacing laptops each 4-5 years so that doesn't upset like in the past. Replacing the board would be always more difficult. It would need a modular design and the passable heat dissipation/energy requirements in most designs, that already might mean trouble even to change graphic card.

 

Really? How difficult is it to upgrade your desktop screen as opposed to a laptop screen? And what about your optical drive? There's no reason why that has be a specifically dedicated space. As a few manufacturers have already demonstrated, this can be a user determined port. Open to whatever cartridge the consumer so determines best fits his needs.

Still, not to over state my point, but did you know that removing/exchanging something as simple as the keyboard can void the warranty on the HDX? That's just ridiculous. You need to take your notebook in for service just to change out the keyboard? What a clear example of company greed. You'd think that by now more manufacturers would have learned that limitation design lesson from GM. Consumers know when they're being hoodwinked; and when they don't get what they know they should, they go elsewhere and may never return.

Heat is far from the biggest problem. Thought it is important in any computer, overheating is only an issue for the processor hungry groups like gamers. And there are already special computer designed to accommodate them.

Well that's just what I'm talking about. Manufacturers could design laptops with these categories already in mind.

Nevertheless, all of these issues have been dealt with and overcome before. Now that is applies to laptops, that's where innovation come in. The fact is, even desktops have gotten smaller(and yet more powerful) than they previously had to be.

You mean like desktop replacements?

And here I was think you were making a case against me!

 

Hmm, hmm. well, just wanted to jump in here. Should read up about how modern semiconductor technology works before assuming that 10% usage = 10% of maximum heat generation.

In any case, they're already pushing the boundaries of silicon semiconductor physics with their down scaling. Next step could be carbon nanostructures, but that may take a while yet.

Here is what I think. Markets work by adapting to what the people want. Most people don't walk into a store and think all the screens look crappy. From my time in the past as a computer salesman I have never heard anyone complain about the screen. What do they ask for? Low price, lots of GB's, and lots of GHz's. So if you figure that there's an ongoing vulnerability, go to the nearest bank and get a venture loan and start your own notebook company that makes your perfect notebook. Problem is, NBR members are usually more into notebooks (I appreciate a good screen too), but even then, there's not enough people to buy your brand.

You'd think that the corporations with their huge market research teams have already thought of all these little complaints. Popular demand just isn't there yet.

Oh and Krane - making people take their laptop in for a keyboard exchange is perfectly logical IMO. Do you really think that outside of NBR people actually know what they're doing when they try to flip up the plastic latches, disconnect the flat cable and put in a new keyboard? If they didn't have this rule they'd be dealing with thousands of idiots coming in for repair that thought the flat cable was tape and cut it with a pair of scissors and then wonder why the new keyboard doesn't work.

 

No doubt what the folks at Honda was thinking some forty some odd years ago. They laughed at the motorcycle company that would be car KING!

I seem to recall an old business adage: "If you build it, they will come." Ever here of it?

These big companies also, have budget departments that tend to reel in any innovation that might cost the company a few dollars. Remember, GM had the blueprints for the electric car (aka Volt) more than a decade ago. What took them so long?

You many have a point. On the other hand, many people need to call AAA just to change a flat tire. Is it really because it's that difficult, or are they just afraid of getting their hands dirty?

One more thing, have you even notice how efficient getting an order at McDonalds is?

Hint: The question has nothing to do with food.

 

I didn't say innovation is bad, or that something that people don't think is necessary today will still be so tomorrow. But there's one very important thing: as an innovator, if you go too fast, you go broke. Simple as that. If the market can't move along with your innovations, then you got nobody to sell to.

There's never an absolute right or wrong with the way you do business. From the business' perspective, they need to meet their next quarter sales figures, keep operating costs low, and deliver a good return on investments for shareholders. Any innovation/technological advancements are the result of this drive. Consumers vote with their dollars, and like the word VOTE implies, it's MAJORITY still decides: if 80% of the market still wants sub $1000 notebooks with powerful processors, lots of memory, and bad screens, then there is no reason whatsoever for companies to change what they are doing. The minority can cry bloody murder for all they want, but unlike in a modern democratic society where there are rules that protect minorities because personal liberties are at stake, the need for a perfect laptop hasn't been considered important enough to be included in a national constitution.

 

I am disappointed that amd/ati XGP didn't take off, having 16x pcie out instead of the slow expresscard 1x pcie would have been nice.

 

Maybe you didn't. But you did ignore it.

On the other hand, if you don't keep up, you also go broke.

The way I see it, 20% is a lot. And the last time I checked, that was much more than the market for Macbooks. So you see, if any of that were true, there'd be no gaming laptops, nor Toughbooks, nor workstations etc. There will always be specialty groups (and people who cater to them) among the masses.

 

You're right about the niche group being also sufficient market space. And there already are producers like Sony, Apple, etc that put premium screens in their computers.

But the OP is asking for an industry-wide change, which will not happen based on 20%.

Also, about the innovation. Your point that if you don't keep up, you go broke, is very valid. However, it doesn't apply - there's nothing to keep up TO. It's not like there are companies selling laptops with premium displays at under $1k that are eating into HP, Dell, Asus, and Acer's market share because of this advantage. I didn't ignore the fact that some innovation is always required, but I assumed that we're on the same page and both think that innovation should also be in moderation.

 

i just think that krane's comments on upgradeability is spot on. especially with the economy now, this could actually be a boon to the laptop industry.

 

neo-Keynesian at it's best.