A French blog (Blogeee) is reporting that Samsung will phase out its netbook line-up in 2012, citing an e-mail that Samsung allegedly sent to its retail partners.
"Following the introduction of our new strategy in 2012, we [will] stop the product range in 10.1in (netbook) in Q1 2012 for the benefit of ultraportable products (11.6 and 12 inches) and Ultrabooks to be launched in 2012," the e-mail reportedly stated.
Netbook sales are on the decline, hurt by tablet PCs and by small-sized notebooks and emerging products such as Ultrabooks. The low cost of netbooks and their ability to handle the majority of basic tasks carried out by users made them quite successful for several years.
Now firms such as Samsung are looking to new products, such as tablet PCs. Ultrabooks are also emerging with effort being put in by many tech firms to bring down their cost while keeping them more powerful than traditional notebooks. Intel and its partners see Ultrabooks as a way to boost the PC, and as a way to steal market share back from tablets.
Written by: James Delahunty @ 25 Nov 2011 9:14
