Summary: The death of the sub-notebook has been greatly exaggerated... by those to whom sub-notebooks are a huge and disruptive business risk

FOR the uninitiated, Intel and Microsoft colluded against sub-notebooks, as evidence we gathered in the following posts ought to show:

• Intel-Microsoft Collusion in Sub-notebooks: A Smoking Gun
• Collusion Against GNU/Linux and Sub-notebooks: Part II

Microsoft hates sub-notebooks, but not as much as it hates GNU/Linux (or GNU/Linux on sub-notebooks). The BBC, which accommodates many former Microsoft executives [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], seems to be giving lip service to (what they hope are) self-fulfilling prophecies of the demise of sub-notebooks.

Among the responses to it we have:

And guess who is keeping the prices and specs up? Why are Linux netbooks over specified so that the sale price is the same as Windows netbooks? The answer is market manipulation by Microsoft using OEM incentives and punitive measures written into OEM contracts and marketing and advertising discounts. Effectively Microsoft is running a series of price fixing and specification fixing cartels with PC OEMs. Hopefully Google and the ARM based Smartbooks will blow the PC cartels wide open.

By the way where did you get the idea that Smartbooks will be chained to a contract? Smartbooks are just ARM based netbooks.

More signs of Microsoft vapourware:

So.. we have an article talking about netbook's doom being close, things about ARM,GNU/Linux running 2 times longer than windows on equipment and then they throw the rumor bomb of Windows 8 or 9 being able to run on ARM. What the heck? Windows 7 is barely out (which hasn't stopped IE from losing market share, by the way), windows 8 would be easily 2 years away, windows 9 would be 5 years away (both optimistic projections, anyway) and why do they name this in the article? And who is creating such buzz? Steve Ballmer? It sounded so much like vaporware stories created by Microsoft PR for so long. Can't believe reporters still buy that crap.

Those vapourware tactics are a Microsoft classic which we wrote about many times before. See for example:

• Interesting Old Document About Microsoft's Vapourware Tactics
• Microsoft's Nathan Myhrvold on How “to Freeze the Market at the OEM and ISV Level”
• Ultimate Deathmatch: GNU/Linux Versus... Vapourware
• Interesting Document About Microsoft's Injuries to Industry, Using Vapourware

Another person hits the nail on the head:

They don't say it but they are talking about Windows netbooks.

What the author is talking about but doesn't actually say is Technology changes (ARM based) outstripping (Windows) netbooks, users chafing against (Windows market distorting) restrictions on netbooks, and rising prices (due to Microsoft forcing OEMs to put Windows on netbooks with inducements and punitive conditions) making them too expensive and unappealing.

Hopefully the upcoming Chrome OS netbooks, ARM smartbooks, and resurgence of Linux netbooks will put and end to that.

Pointing out the obvious:

This is yet another line of "logic" no doubt generated by Microsoft, realizing that there is no way it can scale down Windows 7 for netbooks. So let's declare netbooks dead.

Is it 1984 again?

These pundits forget that machines five years ago and more were and are perfectly capable of every daily task (apart from hi-def video). "We have always been at war with Eurasia!"

With the economy in such poor shape, do they really expect people to keep buying when prices keep rising?

First they disparage netbooks as toys, to discourage people from buying them. Then they wonder why they aren't selling?

"It is impossible to teach a man something when his income depends on not knowing it."

This whole routine ought to sound familiar. Microsoft's attacks on ARM-based sub-notebooks (which it calls "smartbooks" rather than "netbooks") is a subject that we wrote about in:

• Does Microsoft Corrupt the Term “Netbook” to Belittle GNU/Linux on ARM?
• Does Microsoft Hijack the Term “Netbook”?
• Microsoft's FUD Against GNU/Linux on Sub-notebooks Enters Next Level
• The Slime About ARM and Android
• Microsoft Partner Starts Harassing GNU/Linux+ARM Product Vendors

The BBC may be acting innocently here, but who funds those analysts whom the BBC is citing? Suspicion is justified here because of prior observations [1, 2, 3, 4]. ⬆

Related posts:

• ASUS Enters the Slog Business
• More Suspicious Moves from ASUS
• It's Unofficial: Microsoft Pays ASUS (Kickbacks) to Block GNU/Linux. Will EU Commission Step in?
• ASUS: “Currently, We're Closely Tied up With Microsoft”
• What is Going on with ASUS and GNU/Linux?
• ASUS Profits Fall 94% After Getting “Closely Tied Up with Microsoft” at the Expense of GNU/Linux
• Microsoft Embracing, Extending, and Extinguishing Sub-notebooks
• Does Microsoft Blackmail Sub-notebooks Vendors?
• What Microsoft's Anti-Linux Taskforce in Wal-Mart Teaches Us About Sub-notebooks
• GNU/Linux is Killing Microsoft Financially in Sub-notebooks
• Intel Allegedly Colludes with Microsoft (Again) to Elevate Profit, Promote Windows
• Microsoft Watch on Microsoft vs Google and Microsoft vs Sub-notebooks
• Russia to Microsoft: Stop Forcing People to Buy Windows
• Microsoft Fans Still Spread Microsoft's Lies Against GNU/Linux