Mini 1000 TV Commercial: Do People Understand Netbooks?

by Xavier on January 27, 2009

HP started running a Mini 1000 TV commercial that shows how someone on the go might use a netbook. While I love using the Mini 1000, it has its limitations and isn’t the best choice for multimedia. Thankfully, HP kept all the Multimedia bling that’s normally packed in its TV commercials out of this one.

The device is great for chatting, blogging and participating in social networks thanks to its generously-sized keys.

I don’t think the average consumer understands the limits of netbooks. Just this morning, a reader asked me what I thought about buying her husband a Mini 1000 prior to his deployment to Afghanistan. She said he needed a computer that could handle a lot of streaming video and multimedia. I had to explain to her that the Mini 1000 probably isn’t the best choice for him.

I think HP and other OEMs need to be very cautious with the marketing of current generation netbooks so consumers tryly understand what they’re getting.

Tags: netbooks

Comments

Glen Burchers

Is your comment about poor streaming video and multimedia mostly aimed at HD video? I assume youtube streams fine, but which sites do you think are handled poorly by the mini. I want to make sure that future netbooks are fixed so you can recommend them to our troops overseas! (By the way, I'm glad HP is promoting netbooks.)

Xavier

Yes, primarily HD video, but also video games. The fact of the matter is they struggle with fullscreen video. You can play back video from Youtube, Vimeo, Hulu, etc., but many netbooks stutter and strain. Guys who like to play video games will be very disapointed with netbooks.
Of course there's the issue of storage capacity and multitasking. If you're going to download movies you'll run out of storage capacity if you get a netbook w/8GB or 16GB SSDs.
My advice for troops? Get the most expensive netbook/notebook they can afford and to put a premium on durability.
If they do go with netbooks, tell them to get something with a decent sized hard drive and to max out the RAM.