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netbook image courtesy of Wired

One of my friends (and co-workers) Sergei, alerted me to an article in Wired about netbooks and how their popularity points to a truth in computing - we don't do all that much with our computers.

The article first talks about the evolution of the netbook starting with the OLPC project, whereby in order to make an ultra cheap $100 laptop for children in developing nations many of the bigger, better, faster features that we had gotten used to in a new PC had to be eliminated. After the OLPC was released there was actual, sincere consumer interest in a cheap, light but sturdy laptop. The following quote refers to Mary Lou Jepsen, the designer of the first OLPC.

But Jepsen's design trickled up. In the process of creating a laptop to satisfy the needs of poor people, she revealed something about traditional PC users. They didn't want more out of a laptop—they wanted less.

Consumers wanted less. This is an interesting take on netbooks and human behavior in general. Here in the US we're always told to want "more." More features, more power, more! I think this argument falls a little short as most people I know who have a netbook use it as a second machine, "a coffee shop laptop." Maybe this is a trend in the US? I don't have scientific data to prove this but my gut tells me that netbooks are a second machine for most owners. This weekend I was at our local Costco where they were selling the Acer Aspire One (a nice looking machine). I asked a few people standing around if they were considering replacing their machine with a netbook? The overwhelming response was "no." The price point was low enough to purchase a second machine.

I digress a bit, however, because ultimately I agree with the statement the author makes - consumers want less. I might write the statement a little differently, though.

Consumers want simplicity.

I say this because, well, it's obvious, but also because netbooks are a study in how a simple value proposition can change an industry. The netbook value proposition is: surf the web on a small, sturdy machine that doesn't cost very much. Focused simplicity wrapped in an economical package. That's the netbook in a nutshell.

Splashtop is the same way - which is why it's changing the industry. Here's another quote from that Wired article:

It turns out that about 95 percent of what I do on a computer can now be accomplished through a browser. I use it for updating Twitter and Facebook and for blogging. Meebo.com lets me log into several instant-messaging accounts simultaneously. Last.fm gives me tunes, and webmail does the email. I use Google Docs for word processing, and if I need to record video, I can do it directly from webcam to YouTube. Come to think of it, because none of my documents reside on the netbook, I'm not sure I even need the trash can.

We've made no apologies for keeping to our core competencies. Splashtop is there to provide the fastest, most efficient web browsing-focused operating environment. 95% of what an average consumer does is through a web browser. We think that you shouldn't have to wait several minutes to get to what you're looking for (the internet). In a traditional operating system, the consumer pays for the overhead of all that computing power with wasted, frustrated time. Like the netbook we cut that away and give you simplicity.

The combination of the two (netbooks and Splashtop) are incredible. Check us out on the Lenovo S10 as well as the LG X120.