Another Viewsonic Netbook?
Yep, that’s right, Viewsonic – the famous monitor makers – have launched a Windows 7 netbook, the VNB102.
Earlier in the year they launched the VNB100 which more-or-less flopped. So why are Viewsonic pursuing this?
Well, it isn’t really surprising: Everyone else is doing it! (see our article on the ridiculous ‘Dual Screen Netbook’ for proof).
So, the big questions:
- Is it any good?
- What’s Viewsonic’s plan?
Is it any good?
Well, it’s actually not bad. The spec is fairly ‘standard’ for today’s netbooks:
- 10” Display
- 1GB RAM
- Windows 7 Starter
- 160GB Hard Drive
- Fairly decent, solid build quality
- Intel Atom processor
- 6-Hour Battery Life
As we said – fairly standard. Samsung & Asus were selling this same machine 12 months ago (without Windows 7, and with a longer battery life).
The price may be a barrier. At $400 in the states, this will probably come in around the £300 mark as an RRP in the UK. (In reality sellers will price them much cheaper than that)
So why are they doing this?
A few reasons. They’re obviously saw the earlier VNB100 and this machine as ‘proofs of concept’. These are “me-too” designs just to test the water. If they have any sense, over the next year we’ll see some much better machines coming out from Viewsonic.
But why would they sell netbooks at all? Well, the less desktop PCs sell, the less monitors sell. Meanwhile, viewsonic will have been taking notes on Samsung. Samsung were a very minor laptop player, but have quickly become a very major netbook player. That must look appealing to them as – like Samsung – they are very well known for the quality of their screens & see that as their ‘core’ business.
The difference is, Samsung’s strategy was to push things. They picked one area (battery life) & pushed it as hard as they could. Until Viewsonic decide to do something ‘interesting’, it will be seriously hard for them to come anywhere close to Samsung in the netbook market.
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