Netbook Ownership Increases 5% On-Year, Other Trends Revealed Discussion

According to a market research report by PriceGrabber.com, the percentage of online consumers who own a netbook has increased from 10% last year to 15%.

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I thought it was interesting how a large majority don't want to even come close to 1,000 on their next computing purchase. I hope consumers are realizing that 500$ machines are really are all they need. No Macs for them.

 

Most of the people who ask me for help regarding their next laptop purchase have budgets around $400-700, usually towards the lower end of that range. Of course, my experiences are a bit biased since they're coming from high school students with little extra money to throw around, but it does show that most people these days are not looking to spend a huge chunk of money on computers.

 

I spent $1,500 on my first laptop for college.

Pentium 4-M 2.8 GHz (No HT)
1GB RAM
DVD/CD-RW drive
GeForce FX 5200 32MB
1400x1050 display

The cost of getting a fast system has dropped dramatically since 2004, there's just no need for most people to spend more than $750. $500 even.

 

Especially since HD video, Excel (basic features) and Powerpoint are the most intensive tasks that they use their laptops for. Even for a quality downgrade, its much more economical to get a 500-700 laptop every 2-3 years (though they often last longer for basic use) than get a 1000-1400 laptop every 4+ years (and due to lack of care, often don't last that long).

 

@ Jlbrightbill: You "only" spent $1,500 on a college laptop?

I remember back during my senior year in college scraping together $2,800 to buy a brand new PowerBook G3 (Pismo) with as many upgrades as possible:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g3/stats/powerbook_g3_400_fw.html

Nowadays I consider any notebook that costs more than $800 an "expensive" laptop for most consumers.

 

This is my spending over the last few years:
2004: HP Pavilion zv5000z; $1,250
2005: Sager 15.4"; $1,750
2007: Lenovo X61t; $2,250
2008: HP Pavilion dv5t; $1,250
2009: HP ProBook 5310m; $850

The last two notebooks purchases for me have been complimentary machines so they have been less expensive as a result; I have a powerful desktop I use as my main machine. In the future I plan to replace my desktop with a more powerful laptop so I'll likely spend $1,500 - $2,000 on the laptop.