The rise of the subnotebook computer … and the fall of the computing economy
Slashdot notes a story that quotes a big wheel at Sony as being worried about the potential mainstream appeal of the Asus Eee and its ilk:
“”If (the Eee PC from) Asus starts to do well, we are all in trouble. That’s just a race to the bottom,” said Mike Abary.”
The Slashdot poster observes:
“Presumably by ‘we’ he means all the hardware manufacturers who sell over-priced, full-fat laptops. [...] Looks like what’s bad for Sony may be good for the consumer.”
In the short run, certainly, he may be right - but what about the long game? A drop in hardware prices for us consumers would be nice, sure, but there’s bound to be more consequences than that. [image by Scrambled Egg]
This is an issue that Charles Stross broached late last year (right after purchasing his own Eee, naturally). You should read all of Charlie’s thoughts about the inevitable (and long-overdue) commoditization of computing technology, because they add weight to his final blow:
“… how deep will be the recession that follows once the personal computing industry deflates to its natural value (i.e. peanuts)?”
Ouch.
