Microsoft never suggested that the term "netbook" be abandoned in favor of "low-cost small notebook," according to an executive in Microsoft's
OEM division.
In early June at the Computex 2009 conference in Taiwan, Steve Guggenheimer, corporate vice president of Microsoft's OEM division, was quoted as saying that because current netbooks include broad functionality that goes beyond Web browsing, "low-cost small notebook PC" would be a more appropriate way to describe them. However, Guggenheimer says his point wasn't that netbooks should be re-branded.
"There was no attempt there to rename it, there was just an attempt to clarify how we think about the netbook," Guggenheimer said in a recent interview. "I got a lot of grief for trying to rebrand netbooks, but we never branded the netbook. This notion that we were trying to rebrand something that we never branded is just false. "
Guggenheimer's stance is that because netbook users view the machines as they would laptops, and because they want the same applications and functionality as notebook PCs, the notion of a separate category for netbooks doesn't really exist. "We think about netbooks as the low end of the notebook space," he said.
Microsoft says it's not concerned about the impact netbooks are having on its business, but netbooks have clearly become a nettlesome issue for Microsoft's bean counters. Netbooks ship with Windows XP Home, for which Microsoft charges much less than premium versions of Windows, and that's been steadily eroding Windows Client revenue.
Microsoft has been reportedly working with Intel to set hardware specifications for Windows 7 netbooks, and in May backed off a controversial plan to impose a limit of three simultaneously running applications in Windows 7 Starter edition.
Despite Microsoft's apparent lack of a clear plan of action on netbooks, Guggenheimer says that Windows 7, all versions of which have been designed to run well on netbooks, will help clear up the misconception of netbooks being a new and distinct class of device.
