Samsung to reduce production of Laptop PCs (Ativ Books) by 2015

Samsung to reportedly drop Windows notebooks in 2015, will only make Chromebooks | GSMArena

This news has been posted by martynas earlier, but I think it deserves it's own thread.
What at first glance appears like highly speculative rumors, suddenly becomes quite plausible after the fact that Sony has sold Vaio.

The news states that Samsung will continue to make (ARM?) Chrome Books. Further Samsung and Google Sign Global Patent License Agreement | Samsung Tomorrow Official Blog. While this seems to mostly effect Android it could also pave the way for Google taking over just another market of mobile devices.

After the disastrous Ultrabook campaign, this seems to be more than just another slap in the face of Intel & Microsoft.


shocking...


update 12/2014:
the rumors didn't turn out to be true. Samsung has just introduced Broadwell Ativ Book 9's

 

Interesting thing is that i never saw commercial for Samsung Laptops on TV.Samsung Series 9 or Ativ Book 9 are so beautiful that i strongly believe people that have money would buy it ,but they don't even know they exist,so Samsung is also guilty for this situation.
Man this is not good,i am talking here all the time how we ,on this forum ,are just a few,but nobody would believe me.
Mayor population that buy electronics don't care about laptops.70% of people use technology to give "Likes" on Facebook and they will buy tablets.
20% will buy cheap laptops by Asus,Lenovo or Acer and other 10% will buy expensive laptops.So when you split those 10% on Apple and Samsung you get this ,Samsung thinks how to get rid of Windows notebook division.This experiments with Chromebooks are budget only by Google ,they only have money for this kind of bs.I just dont belivie Samsung is willing to drop Win notebooks and go with something that don't have future and its late buy two years.
Here in Croatia people that have money don't buy anything else then Apple.
I don't know with what brand to go after and if Samsung do this.I had this winter for Christmas five brands in my hand and non of them feels like Series 9 except Apple,but Apple is non-Windows and scary expensive,3200$ for MBP 15" with two year guaranty.
Thank good for ebay maybe i find there Samsungs notebooks in years that comes.

 

Well, in the Digitimes article it says that Samsung will no longer launch conventional notebooks, that leaves some room for things like x86 based convertibles and other touchscreen 'enhanced' devices.

But honestly i could understand Samsung if they completely get out of the Windows laptop market, considering how Microsoft uses Windows 8 as a weapon to get into the mobile market at all cost.

Seems like Apple will be the only option in the future for me...

 

Wait, what?
Both produce fine laptops, some aimed at the entry level some at the high end market, just like Samsung.

To be honest, while I think it's a shame Samsung might stop producing laptops now that they have some offers that are very interesting to me, I am more than certain there will be competitors taking their place or other product classes taking over the market and enabling me to fulfill my needs just as easily.

 

Samsung decided to go all-in on notebooks a couple of years ago and now it's time to cut their losses after low sales numbers. It's not that shocking. Their tablet and phone sales are off the charts.

They would be positioning themselves to push their own ARM SoCs in huge numbers as Chromebooks. They sell pretty well now, and the platform hasn't been refreshed in a while.

The cross-licensing stuff with Google is very interesting, and makes me wonder if Tizen will ever get out of the gate.

 

This, exactly, but with another slant too:

Can you imagine how expensive it must have been for pc makers to support Win8 and 8.1: Rewriting drivers for all models every 12 months, because Microsoft decided that backwards compatibility was no longer an important Windows virtue; the millions of support calls and returns from users who didn't understand UEFI and messed up their computers; not to mention the push back from users to the Windows UI changes.

Microsoft's partners must have been incredibly frustrated that they couldn't just be allowed to build computers that people wanted to buy. And to rub salt in the wound, Microsoft charges them more for Win8 than for Win7 - AND now competes with them on tablets.

It's about a year ago I began wondering how long before pc makers would just quit.

 

what's interesting is that Samsung just rebranded all of their Windows laptops to ATIV only 6 months ago.

i've yet to own a Samsung notebook, but am looking forward to buying the NP900X3G once it hits the US market. i've always been attracted to the ATIV/9 Series and will only buy a FHD matte and non-touch screen in the lightest form factor possible. there really aren't any other decent options with that requirement outside of the Sony Pro 13, so at least the AB9 is an option for 2014 and perhaps a final ATIV 9 version in 2015?

if the new VAIO team doesn't sell into the U.S. and Europe markets, and if Samsung goes 100% Chromebook, the only other solid remaining option will be ASUS. if Lenovo ever gets their act together with their business models, then perhaps them too, but don't hold your breath. and HP, Dell, and Toshiba are all pretty much garbage.. i'd actually consider buying an Acer before any of those three.

 

Well, this news is at least true for Singapore. Here, the ATIV Book 9 Plus was supposed to launch in Q4 2013. However until today, Feb 2014, there has been no news regarding it at all. I did ask the Samsung Sales Reps in various stores and they all said the same thing - Samsung is pulling out of the laptop market in SG and clearing old stocks now.

Kinda disappointed because personally, the ATIV Book 9 Plus has the perfect combo of design, build quality, weight, performance and battery life. The only other choice currently is the Zenbook Infinity but the battery life is mediocre and costs SGD$2798 here.

Speaking of Sony... View image: Screen shot 2014 02 12 at 11 23 26 AM

 

I think the hardware manufacturers pushing back in different ways. I wonder how Microsoft reacted to HP's announcement. Samsung are also working on getting round the "rules" made by others: They have quietly released the NP900X3G with its matte non-touch display as a "business" notebook.

Lets see what happens in 2015. I suspect the message from the notebook manufacturers that they want the freedom to make models that will sell with an operating system that people want to buy will start to seep through to Microsoft and Intel. I'd also love to see the sales figures for the Ativ Book 9 Lite which has been offered from day 1 with both matte non-touch and glossy touch screen options. Which has sold most? (I suspect the matte screen - helped by Samsung putting a big price premium on the touchscreen version). It's also interesting that Samsung chose to ship the new Book 8 (NP870Z5G) with a matte non-touch display. Perhaps they think the display choice will help them stand out from the competitors.

Only two years ago Samsung made the provision of non-reflective displays a key marketing feature of their whole notebook range. While touchscreen displays can be non-reflective, they are more difficult to keep clean than a glossy surface. Touchscreen also adds thickness and weight.

John

 

So glad I got my ativ book 9 +.

Sad to hear this news.

 

Here in Croatia we don't have models with Haswells from Samsung.The newest one is 870Z5E-X02HS.
Now i see ,mayor Samsung import company shut down part of site where they sell Samsung notebooks.They put their pathetic offer together with Sony notebooks.Men this is going from bad to worst.

 

update to my last post:
I called 5 minutes ago mayor Samsung import company for Croatia ,they told me that from 01/01/2014 they stop importing Samsung laptops and they don't plan to change their mind about it ,not this year and not even in 2015.
So it seems to me that i will not see ATIV Book 2014.
I need to start thinking about 900X4C.
Update:I also called Slovenia ,they told me its finished with Samsung notebooks for this whole region not because they want but because Samsung wanted they way.

 

I wouldn't bet on that.
Last year Samsung developed such a device: ATIV Q | Samsung.com. But why hasn't it been released? Was it because of license problems with Google, Intel & Microsoft due to Dual OS?

By shocking I don't mean necessarily surprising, but the impact this might have. Samsung and Google are massive players. Combined they form an uber player.
The Chromebook taking over the remaining Laptop PC market (although I can't hardly see that happening due to the limitations of Chrome OS) would put the customer in another walled garden, much like in the tablet / phone market. It might completely lock out alternative operating systems, well..., possibly small non-expandable internal storage will prevent that anyways.

The last thing I've read is it's very well adoptable to the Internet of Things. But so is Android I guess.

The URL is missing. Can you check please



Ha, looks like Microsoft is buckling: Strange bedfellows: Microsoft could bring Android apps to Windows | The Verge

 

This was the link I had in mind but there are plenty of others such as this.

John

 

The Ubuntu PPA for the XE303C12 is robust. It's fully supported on most distros.

Tizen is a blatant power play against Google and an insurance policy for Samsung. An official product launch has been delayed by some two years now, the last time by direct order of the CEO. There are many targets, Tizen's strongest seems to be IVI. Land Rover has implementations in the works. Samsung will apparently use it in its TVs. There were netbook style UIs demoed. But none of that has actually been released - that's why I made the comment regarding the patent agreement.

 

+1

I just found out about this and can't believe it. The 9+ is simply fantastic. I think few people know about it and that's why they are not selling that many. All my friends with Macs think that my 9+ is better than their laptops.

This is truly sad news.

 

it is very sad news, but Samsung's lack of marketing is what really hurt them. it's crazy how much money they continue to pump into all of their Galaxy devices, but nothing for notebooks.

i wonder if they'll release any Broadwell notebooks in 2015, or if 2014 will be the end of the line.

 

Has this been confirmed officially? I'm trying not to lose hope, still hoping that this is either a rumor or not final.

 

If the report turns out to be true, why would they any further invest in developing for a new platform? Not only it has to be developed, but also supported.

 

I feel like Samsung never really tried with the PC division. The implementation was always lackluster. On my NP900X3C, upgrading to 8.1 has been a disaster. The touchpad and drivers are one of the worst I have used on ANY laptop, the Wi-Fi is abysmal, and why do the proprietary FN buttons never work, despite having installed samsung settings.

All other laptops I have owned have had the FN buttons work out of the box after a refresh, Samsung is the only exception.

 

Samsung (usually) make good hardware. Perhaps Samsung should become a contract manufacturer and leave whoever puts the badge on to sort out the software.

The Dell X1 was made by Samsung.

John

 

how will their support of 2014 (and prior) devices work?.. outsourced to a 3rd party?

 

They already outsource all the servicing except, perhaps, in Korea while software / driver support is already very patchy for models out of production.

John

 

Last minute establishment of a brand? I guess "Series" doesn't sell very well.

 

What happened to Samsung notebook line is this:
Let get for example Thinkpad users.Thinkpad users buy new series every year and Lenovo gets great amount of money on spare parts .
Samsung makes great phones and Samsung phones users buy every year,they have to have every new series.
That didn't happened with notebooks.Samsung laptops are so good (like their SSD) that Samsung don't earn anything money on spare parts.Also they notebooks are so cool that users don't have needs to upgrade every year.For good sake ,battery life of 900X4C is still better then 80% of new Haswell notebooks.
So whats happened is that Samsung has destroyed his notebook line with his excellence.
I dont know how much notebooks one company need to sell to have profit but 7 millions seems to me pretty good.
How much units Apple sells ,i believe not more the Samsung or am i wrong?I am thinking here only on MacBooks.
This is something that i find ,does they think here only on notebooks or tablets also?

 

Nice theory but it's not only Samsung who are feeling the squeeze because people are feeling less need to upgrade as frequently as they used to (Windows 8 and touchscreen didn't prove to be features that caused people to upgrade whereas Windows 7 created extra sales).

But Apple operates with very good margins having contracted out the manufacturing and then selling at premium prices.

Samsung have tried to emulate Apple with the Series 9 but omitted to provide the Apple quality support.

Anyway, we wait to see what happens. They might sell the notebook business rather than shut it down (if there's anyone who wants to buy it). It's not so many years since Samsung started making HDDs progressively improved to become one of the market leaders. They then decided that it wasn't sufficiently profitable and sold the HDD business to Seagate. The Seagate 3 platter 2TB 9.5mm 2.5" HDD is made in what used to be Samsung's HDD factory.

John

 

Yes but i highly doubt if somebody even buy their notebook line will produce them with this kind of quality.I never had Thinkpad but i saw how some people complain on Lenovo quality and saying its not even shadow of what it was.
All in all i suggest Samsung notebook lovers (like me) to buy one or two more for black days.I am between 900X3G and 900X4C.I will definitely not buy new 2014 version with 15.6" because glossy screen.
What i even consider is to buy 900x4C in parts and assemble it at home.What you think is that possible?I really need comments on this.
I will try to find all parts number but for now this is what i have in mind:
900X4C-A01HR part of notebook with keyboard
900X4C-A01HR bottom cover
900X4C-A01HR screen
900X4C-A01Hr battery
900X4C-A04DE motherboard.I think 900X4C with i5 never been available in this region only with i7 processor so i would have to go with German version.
900X4C-A04DE screws
I have wifi card
I will buy msata
Did i forget something?
Do i get cpu chipset cooler with motherboard or is that separate part?
How they call that cable that connect(bridge) two parts of motherboard?
My prediction is that this will not be problem to order from service ,after all they find for me wwan/wifi antenna for G01DE version so i guess they will find this.

 

That would be an interesting challenge.

Work through the spare parts lists for various versions of the X4C at samsungparts.com. Here is one. Only the top housing with the keyboard is likely to be country-specific.

There are also various connectors, plus the daughterboards with the ports and the heat sink assembly and the fan and ..... Tell us what you think it might cost when you have added up all the pieces. I think it will be cheaper to buy a US version and then change the top housing to give your required keyboard.

John

 

Yes i also thought it would be cheaper,but try to google amazon.com ,there is no more 900x4c in stock.There is only one and its 2000$ i think.
Maybe to find use one on ebay and when i say use i mean even broken.Then build it on it.You know ,then i don't need screws ,connectors cpu cooler etc.
Whats left is 900x4d-k01de but i am pretty skeptic about it.It seems to me like its not same quality.Not only by picture but from costumers comments from amazon.de
What is good about amazon is that i can try it for 30 days and if i see some kind of problem return it.

 

Well this sucks. I had my entire company refresh slated for these across economy, mid-range, and ultrabook/series 7's. The build quality was very good, right on par with Apple which reigns supreme in terms of build quality imo. I already have 3 of them in the field.

It is their own fault for not hitting consumers though, i never saw a single commercial with Samsung laptops, in addition to that, they only had one retail outlet/partnership, and it was with Best Buy which are becoming more and more deserted. They banked 100% on people going into bestbuy to get them. But even within bestbuy they pushed the tablets and phones which had huge displays and people dedicated to them, where their 4 or 5 display laptops were pushed off to a corner like a red headed step child.

Ohhh by the way, what prompted this was that they have started yoinked them off the shelves in-store, and business rep has said they are going bye bye by the end of summer probably.

Sucks.

 

What came to my mind also ,is that raw materials for building electronics are every day more and more expencive.In fact raw materials market will probably have problems in 10 years to satisfy every electronic manufacturer.Production costs of Samsung galaxy and Samsung series 7 or 9 ,what ever you want ,are immeasurable but they still in the end costs about same.So smartphone that leaves factory costs 100$ and notebook 500$ but they in store both cost around 800$,So do the math, what is more profitable.
Only manufacturer that can rise notebooks price for same % like they rise smartphone price is Apple.,Because it has market.
If Samsung needs to do that to stay on market,i say go ahead I am read to pay their 1class product even more then now.

 

I've been reading about this for quite some time now and it makes me really sad. Samsung had pretty much the best possible fabrication quality in some of its Ultrabook and semi-Ultrabooks. Especially sad, since they weren't that successful with them, even though it should be the opposity for such high quality builds. What I'll be missing the most will be the astonishing displays they got with their products.

To focus on the present:
One last, fantastic deed would be to implement a Geforce 850M into the ATIV Book 8 NP870Z5G.
Then I could finally have a NB that fulfills my (slightly) ridiculous standards, the Swiss Army Knife of 15,6" Notebooks.

 

You are certainly not alone in your disappointment! Personally, I think these markets are so dynamic that even in mid-2014 it's too early to be confident what Samsung will do in 2015. As others have pointed out, I think the reason Samsung has not been more successful with its notebook computers is simple: no marketing. It's the exact converse of the reason for their success in smartphones and likely soon, tablets. For me, the biggest disappointment about their potential exist from the notebook market is the likely lack of support and spare parts. I'm hoping they used enough off-the-shelf parts - many of them from their own "shelf" that they will continue to manufacture for their customers - that this won't occur. My greatest concern would be batteries, almost always custom parts to fit the unusual shapes of spaces created for them in the notebook's architecture.

On your other concern, I may have a bit of news for cheer. It seems Asus is marching as fast as they can to own the space Samsung occupied with them - ultra high quality and even higher performance notebooks. They have just released this product, essentially an Ultrabook that manages to accommodate a nVidia 840M (Maxwell) along with 3 USB3 ports, a 2.5" SSD and a very high quality, extremely bright FHD Matte (!) display - not touchscreen. While you are looking for a 15.6" model and one with more gaming chops and, I would assume, a Quad Core Haswell cpu, but this model is 3.5 lbs and costs 1,000 Euros! Since Asus is also a gaming superpower, it stands to reason that it would eventually create a new market segment: light weight and relatively slim Ultrabook/Gamers.

Let's hope for the best!

 

I think a lot of people would love to see such a machine, it could be as popular as last year's NP770/780/870/880Z5E. But as I responded after your post in the NP870Z5G thread, I don't think that is Samsung's goal with the current Z5G or future AB8 models. Though I really hope I am wrong about this.

 

I bought a Ativ book 9 1080P i7 with 256 SSD (matte screen). Unbelievable build quality and amazing screen at only 2.56 lbs. Asus and Acer are Taiwanese companies with horrid support and their BQ does NOT match the book 9. Nothing does. I'll miss the book 9. Not so sure about the rest of Samsung's notebook line but the book 9 was something special for sure. A real MB air killer for sure. Now I would probably go with a air if they ever get around to putting a decent screen on it. But I hope my Sammy lasts for many years. A truly awesome machine. Unfortunately their notebooks had non existent marketing and poor distribution Missing from North America for many years and once we got it, they pull the cord. But I feel I did good. The newer touch Ativ book 9 got heavier, and a glossy screen. 2013's 1080P matte book 9 was their Apex IMO. And the ones that had a 256 SSD were rare birds. These things will hold their value on Ebay. You better believe it.

 

And you can upgrade the mSATA SSD as far as 1TB. However, you are stuck with the 4GB RAM.

The RAM limitation was addressed by the 2014 NP900X3G which has an 8GB RAM configuration (and upgradable mSATA SSD) but Samsung have done their best to keep that model a secret, perhaps because it doesn't have a touchscreen and therefore doesn't tick all the right boxes for a Haswell-powered Ultrabook.

John

 

I'm still seeing nothing more conclusive than a single article claiming that Samsung will apparently stop manufacturing laptops.

Until we hear it from the horse's mouth, I see no reason to assume any of this is true.

 

Hi John. Also like to remind you that the 256 SSD had a higher clocked CPU 2.0 that only was shipped with the 256 SSD model. That you cannot upgrade. And the prices reflect it on ebay. Have not checked lately but I think inventories are depleted on Amazon now. I had a private message a while back from a forum member saying that the prices for a used 256 SSD FHD ativ book 9 was well over 1K USD. They ended up going with the slower clocked i7 with 128 SSD. Samsung made very few 256 SSD. Bestbuy never saw any of those machines. Just the few from retailiers from Amazon and the like. At one point I saw it dip to 1400 USD. Right after that when inventories were low they rose up to 1700 USD. Now I highly doubt one can purchase a new one.

 

What was stated in the article about Samsung discontinuing laptops in 2015 may very well be true.

I was planning on buying a Samsung Series 9, and stumbled on that article. Went to the shops a week or so later here in Australia and all Samsung laptops were pulled from all the shelves (about 2-3 months ago).

No stock anywhere in the entire country except for a few display models.

 

I don't necessarily disagree as plans can change and it may be a ploy to get M$ and Intel to dial down their restrictions. However, it can't be argued that the haswell roll out has been limited (3 models?) and some markets are apparently not seeing release at all. Not a good sign. I also recall at least a few instances of reports that suppliers who requested inventory were informed samsung was no longer servicing that region/market. Sony essentially bowed out of the PC market (though vaio survives) and Samsung might do the same. They were never a market leader and might not see it as worthwhile to compete with Lenovo, Dell, HP, Apple for low margins.

 

Look at the notebooks on Samsung UK's website. Almost all are models released over one year ago which are now hard to purchase because they are no longer available. There are a couple of newer notebooks (NP870Z5G and NP900X3G) that are not on the Samsung website but are available to buy if you search hard enough although supplies appear to be limited. Two UK versions of the NP930X5J have been listed in the SW Update database for about 3 months but is nowhere to be seen.

I can understand them discontinuing production of the notebooks at the bottom end of the market but I can't figure out why supplies of the few models that are still in production are so limited. It's almost as if there is deliberate constraining of supplies and lack of marketing with the objective of demonstrating that the quantities sold are insufficient to justify continuing production. Which is a shame given that Samsung could just retrench to what it originally did 5 or so years ago: Produce a much lower volume of premium notebooks.

It's crossed my mind more than once that Samsung have signed up a big contract to produce something for that fruity named company. If so, there could be two consequences (i) the other product gets priority in the factory and (ii) Samsung scales back on the selling of competing products.

John

 

Possibly make a higher resolution air? There is some logic to this being that the book 9 was the only machine that actually was better then the air. When you feel the sandblasted surface of the 9's dura aluminum surface it looked and felt superior to the rough edges of the air's more raw aluminum approach. When you look at close up high resolution pictures of the air you will see many imperfections and generally see a raw looking surface. The 9's tolerances where in the thousands of a mm I have read. Even when you look at extreme blow ups of the side edges of a book 9 you will be hard pressed to see anything out of alignment and the tapered edges look as perfect close up as they do from a distance. In short, the 9's tolerances and BQ are unmatched for any device I have ever see. Not only better then the air but destroys it. Its unfortunate that more people were not aware of such a machine. I feel Samsung built the 9 to show Apple it could not only build a similar device but also take it another level up. But in the end, it failed because of the low volumns that were produced. I'm sure that it may have never been able to achieve high volumes because of the high BQ and specifications that it demanded. Another way to look at it is the air is something that is mass produced and the Book 9 is something like Mercedes was in the 1960's when they were still hand built and lacquer paint was still used on the finish.

 

The Book 9+ initially suffered from software issues partly caused by support for the high dpi and partly from Samsung's software side not matching the hardware. Prices have come down from the initial release but the momentum has been lost.

The NP930X5J / NP940X5J is unbeatable in terms of weight vs screen size for those who can live happily with Intel graphics but Samsung don't seem to be trying to sell it. The previous NP900X4C is also a unique package in terms of size and weight. With hindsight, even if Samsung had given it a PLS display it may have remained a secret if they didn't do some serious marketing.

John

 

So ,i bought smartphone for the first time,LG G2. And you know what was my conclusion.Windows sucks and everything about it.If somebody can make me 13,3 inch notebook with nothing more then phone hardware and one big battery inside it i would never look again Intel CPU or Windows OS.I would give without thinking 2000€ for that kind of device.
I charge this phone in Monday and use it till Friday.If i dont use that battery icon stands on 100% for 7 days.Show me one Windows device that can do that.I definitely don't blame people that buying Android device.
There is no room for Intel and Windows in mobile market device,not with this power hungry solutions.
So if somebody from Samsung reading this.Please Samsung we need Series 9 with Android and phone hardware.
This is just one of 100 of reason why Samsung is moving out from Windows market.
People just dont want to be plug into power every 5 hours.

 

Apples and oranges really. Comparing ARM to an i5/i7 is like comparing a two-stroke to a V8, completely different uses. And if you only use a notebook for an hour or so a day you can squeeze out 5 days as well. Windows Phone and RT run on ARM with similar battery life so it's not really a software issue. While I agree a majority of home users are transitioning from laptops to tablets and phablets, there is still a demand for laptops at least in business. If you want an Android laptop, get a chromebook and you will quickly realize how limited its functionality is (try adding a printer). Computing trends may be changing but it's gonna to be a long time before I can get all my work done on a pared-down OS or the cloud and most of the time I'm not away from an outlet for hours on end. Samsung may want to stick with phones because people on contracts tend to upgrade them every 2 years, but their last earnings report suggests that even the phone market has become saturated.

 

I think the poster was referring to a hybrid that runs Android OS not chrome OS. Samsung did make such a device and MS and Google ganged up on Samsung and said no way we will allow it. The poster also wanted Android phone hardware which is a stretch. But the android/W8 machine did exist in prototype and IMO would have been more useful then the modern interface. Many people showed interest for such a device and its unfortunate it will never see the light of day. Its ironic that the new surface pro 3 would make a great W8/Android hybrid with its small and lightweight form factor.

 

That might have been the Samsung XE900T1A which is sitting in SW Update's database with drivers prepared around the end of 2012 (that's the newest date in the display color profile package).

While we are temporarily running off-topic I would note that I recently bought an Acer Windows tablet which is surprisingly usable with pricing in the Android tablet range.

John

 

I would like to weigh in with a somewhat contrarian POV. I think the market for what we used to call computing devices and now have definitions based on form factor (laptop, tablet, smartphone) rather than function or even use case makes it confusing at the least and downright misleading for the most part to evaluate the place each kind of device, its functionality, form factor, performance and operating and software platform play in differentiating devices and where and when each is best deployed. As one who owns a powerful smartphone, two powerful tablets - one Android, one iPad - and about 5 laptops I can tell you that - except for the laptops, for which I have a bit of a compulsion to acquire then keep anything that captures my fancy when first released! - I use each and all of these devices at different times for different purposes. Of all of them, I could most easily - and soon will - part with the iPad because its capabilities pretty much overlap those of my Android tablet, but lack the former's flexibility and Wacom stylus. Each device has its place and its use. I'm one of those people who are not only online, but actively using one or more devices for most of the day and much of the night, so this idea of 5 days of use is completely irrelevant to me. Depending upon where I am (home, travel, near AC outlets or not, etc) it's hard to predict whether my phone, tablet or laptop will run out of juice first. Fortunately, I am rarely away from AC power for more than a few hours a day and I always carry a backup battery charger, so this whole concept of getting rid of the Intel/Microsoft platform because you have to plug in too often (I get 6-10 hrs on my various laptops, longer than any device I own except Apples - which will never become my computing mainstays - but essentially all of these mobile devices last the same time on a battery, so that is not a remotely important factor.

Let me cut to the chase. My phone - a Samsung S4 - is great for phone calls (yes, I still make them!), texting, quick email checks and brief responses and quick news checks. Otherwise the screen is way too small to even read well, much less do work on where real estate is needed to make sense of things. My tablet - a Samsung Note 8 - is the single device I would keep if I could only have one, but still I consider it a "companion" device." Companion to what? Sorry for posing such obvious questions: to my computer (i.e., laptop of course)! The smartphone and the tablet are simply thinner, lighter more portable versions of the device by which I run my life: my laptop (s). Android is a great OS and I love to play with apps (I've installed 130, used each about 1.25 times, uninstalled 90% within a month!) and I love the convenience of my tablet, which is actually large enough to read and even write - solely because it has a Wacom stylus built in; if I was restricted to on OSK with my fingers, it would be a consumption-only device. My laptop is the one device that does absolutely everything, with no restriction, with unlimited power (for my needs), ample viewing screen size and superb keyboards to enable me to do something very important in my daily life: writing - not just articles or blog posts, even emails, which consist of more than one or two sentences comprised of abbreviated words! My laptops impose no limitations on my activity whatsoever except their (increasingly shrinking) bulk and the space occupied by opening them up in clamshell form, the only one which enables me to actually accomplish anything. If my laptop was based on Chrome or Android, it would be no better than my tablet or smartphone except that I could see the screen and type to express myself, but the screen is what uses the battery so the OS dumb-down would achieve only that - dumbing down my capabilities. Great, thin, light, full computing OS (Windows or OSX) laptops are so cheap and power-efficient that I can't imagine making any other device the mainstay of my digital life.

As far as Samsung goes, it has it's own reasons - good or bad - for not supporting its Windows computer lines, but I honestly doubt it relates to the inferiority of the OS and silicon platforms they used. When I recently went shopping for a brandy-new state-of-art Windows 8.1 touchscreen crazy high res laptop, I tried - even owned - as many as seven alternatives and in the end, my 9 Plus i7/8GB/256GB was heads and shoulders better than the next 3 best alternatives. It is one of the finest pieces of kit I have ever owned and all that it lacks I could ask for would be a dual digitizer with Wacom stylus. Well, actually that plus I'd rather this be an 11" model, so it would be even a bit more portable, even though it would lose some battery life.

At the end of the day, my opinion is that phones are for calls and texts with occasional email and news checks (social media if that's your thing), tablets are companion devices when carrying or opening a laptop is just not practical, devices for personal consumption of media of all kind - consumption but not creation - and laptops are for, well, doing the world of things that digital age has brought to our lives, with no compromises, no material limitations (obviously when used in-office with docks, mulitple monitors and lots of other great peripherals they're even that much more powerful, and pull thousands of miles away from the toy-like phone/tablet devices that I believe will remain important accessories in our lives but will be seen as "fads" that captivated consumer markets for a couple of years in the first and second decades of the 21st century. In the end, we need keyboards, usable screens, and powerful hardware to do anything useful, anything really interesting in digital life. Frankly, I think the volume of sales of all devices will go the way of PCs in the past two years: declining over time because technology has pretty much hit a wall - not of capacity, which will continue to grow along Moore's law, but of uses for all the additional power. To wit: my 2010 Sony Z laptop is more powerful, has more ports and pretty close to as good a screen as my brand new Ativ Book 9 Plus. I only bought the Samsung because, frankly, it is just such a masterpiece of industrial design and production and, well, I have this thing about laptops .

I'm sorry if this was too off-topic. I was responding to the quoted posts that I assumed were on-topic! Anyway, the laptop is dead/Samsung Laptops are dead - long live Samsung laptops!!!!

 

Not sure if anyone would know the answer to this, but is there any news on whether Samsung will update the Ativ Book 9 Plus laptop with the upcoming Broadwell chips? It sounds like most people expect Samsung to leave the laptop business which is a shame because the Series 9/Ative Book 9 Plus laptops are simply the best out there. My current NP900x3c has served me well over the past 2 years and it works perfectly fine, but I'm thinking I'll try to get whatever the last iteration of this laptop will be before Samsung stops making them. I'm just trying to decide when the right time is to buy it. Should I wait for Black Friday? Maybe wait until end of this year? Thanks in advance.

 

Laptops will continue to exist for those who need the functionality that cannot be done so conveniently using other hardware formats. However, a combination of shrinking demand and longer working life will reduce the numbers being manufactured. Previously there has also been reliance by the hardware manufacturers on a new version of Windows to stimulate a new wave of upgrading. However, Windows 8 disrupted that trend.

No one here was reported any useful insights on whether Samsung's current low notebook production is because they are phasing out completely or because they are planning a Broadwell family and don't want a large inventory of Haswell inventory that has to be shifted at discounted prices.

John