Day of reckoning: Q1 2009 PC market share figures arrive

Dell is tanking, and they don't charge exorbitant prices. If I want Dell to stick around, I'd suggest they raise their prices.

You'll never catch me, Cap'n! If you want me, you'll just have to pay the full dollar or give me something shiny. Ooh, is that tinfoil?

Back off, Captain! She's mine, all mine! Her cold, pasty white skin inspired my minimalist approach to design.

I have had Dells in the past and I rather like them, but they really have to do better. I used the chat facility on their website (which is about as horrible as a website can be - once I found 3 different prices for the same computer). I was asking questions about their warranty and as I often am stationed abroad asked about international support. In order to get that I was told that I must buy an additional extended warranty and also an international warranty. I asked about the price and they told me that they changed every Thursday. I asked about the price TODAY and they would not give me a response. FWIW my Aluminium MacBook which I bought in November cost me £40 ($60) for 3 years of AppleCare and it was good for ANYWHERE in the world. I hasten to add that this was the Higher Ed price as I am working on another degree. Dell has to do better, a lot better.

Todays news... In the worst global recession in 40 years, sales of goods such as computers are down. The Sun will rise and set within the same 24 hour period. Now for some Microsoft/Windows news please go to.... http://www.pcworld.com/article/163153/more_zune_hd_details_emerge.html

Paul you must remember that Mac's make about 1/3 of Apples current revenues. They are CE company making PC's bundled with a novelty OS that's popular among the bi-coastal US market and certain other niches. Somehow that translates into press coverage that indicates they are a major player/alternative in the global context. 60/40 almost. The MSFT commercials hit on it when they highlight Africans, Asians and exotic 'names' like Giampaulo where Leo Laporte doens't even want to make the effort to pronounce. God forbid it was Indian national so he could break out the Apu accent. About 5/6 of humanity technically isn't worthy of Apple or its stores. Computing begins and ends with the a certain effette preening and distinct demographic. Thats why these ad's are golden.

@Paul - Too bad that your sites and blogs have devolved into such a joke, it used to be my favorite place for IT news. I think that there are a couple of reasons for this...first, your lack of moderation. A simple little ignore feature would go a long way. Second, your continued bashing of Apple and its fringe users. You seem to get a little pleasure each and every day by throwing little jabs in where they could be simply left out. Maybe you are fishing for clicks...maybe not...I'll keep reading and finding my own sick pleasure in the amount of entertainment that is provided, but for real Windows news, I'll go to MJF's site - http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/ By the way, mikegalos - care to define the term "teabagging" that you used this morning in your standard leftist tactic of trying to quash anybody that you disagree with? I am sure that you won't do so, at least not truthfully...just like Anderson Cooper - http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2009/04/15/cnns-anderson-coop... --tayme

BEGINTRANSMIT @Tayme - I find your insistence upon interjecting trivial carbonform political rants into the important matters of earthbound Information Technology discussed here to be a distraction. The feudal matters of your society concern me little. To the biped known as @Paul, I suggest immediate elimination of this offender! Bring him to the Hall of Reckoning, and as Burlaq the Reasoned One dealt with Lephaceous the Chatterer, dismantle his atomic structure with micron tweezers. ENDTRANSMIT

>>I'll keep reading and finding my own sick pleasure in the amount of entertainment that is provided, but for real Windows news, I'll go to MJF's site - blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft<< Thats cold.

Just looking at the sales here, HP, Dell, and Acer all sell netbooks. I don't recall Toshiba or Lenovo selling any, and Apple sure as h3ll doesn't. What model of netbook do you normal people actually like? Anybody like the netbooks from the top 3? Side-question: does ASUS/ASmobile build netbooks for the top 3?

Avast ye, Waethorn! If ye be referrin' to me Rock o' Gibraltar, ye'd be well-advised to not be considerin' it a mere peg boy's- it be well enough girthy to please ye mom, whom I have harpooned many a time with it. Arrrrggghhhh!!!

I thought ASUS was the market leader in netbooks??? I have to agree with some here, I just dont get the netbook craze. Then again I think twitter is nothing but digital diarrhea of the mouth. Maybe I am too old at 42.

@bettieblu - The local one that I went to was good. There were about 1000 people there. A lot has been lost in thinking that it is only about not wanting to pay taxes...that is not it at all. I agree, you can't listen to Hannity, Limbaugh, or MSNBC/CNN/mikegalos. You have to listen to the real people that were there. But, I'll leave the politics alone for this blog... --tayme

"after 8 years of deregulated...greed" SOX compliance was one of the biggest regulations to ever be forced on business. And let's not forget the Community Reinvestment Act, which was yet another regulation that further sent us down a path of inflated home values, all because the government wanted to "intervene" in the free markets. And the failed Freddie, which Rahm Emanuel was on the board of and oversaw tons of accounting irregularities, which would contribute to the downfall of the quasi-government agency. Seems to me that government tends to cause more problems than good when it overly gets involved in the free market. As I've said before on here, the blame for the current financial mess goes well around to everyone. The government in general, the Fed, banks, realtors, financial pundits, and individuals hoping to flip a run down house located in a bad neighborhood and expect 100's of thousands over the real value. The party had to end some day. I attended a tea party yesterday. It was refreshing, but there were also some fringe crazies there as well. No doubt it is being reported poorly by the NY Slimes, MSNBC and CNN. It was to be one of many protests that are being staged through a grass roots effort. Just like the Obama campaign, so the left really has nothing to complain about. And where were these people when Bush was spending like mad? First, his increase in spending will be a pittance compared to Obama's. And, what would the point be? We already had a media and Hollywood that hated him, and protests galore. I can't see additional protests be worthwhile. And remember, we got a tax cut, not an increase. And before someone says the 95% of people getting a tax cut, tell me next April what that equals. And then tell me the increased costs of goods and services when/if cap and trade gets passed. Then tell me whether you were better off under Obama or Bush. Netbook wise, ASUS is certainly a big leader, as is Acer, Dell, Lenovo and HP. Sony too, but I don't necessarily count the P as a netbook necessarily. If I were to buy one, a HP 2140 would be it. Although, I'd wait for Windows 7 to be available. I also agree that some of these brand new posters are sometimes funny, but really annoying. Paul, you are going to have to do something about it. It's probably just bonch using his "honey" to do this.

"I thought ASUS was the market leader in netbooks???" They are, for the most part anyway. The rest of their systems aren't as popular though, because they market them as highly-fashionable higher-spec machines, kinda like Sony. They don't mass produce them as low-cost machines as Dell does, and they don't have the brand recognition to market them as HP does. ASUS does very well as an ODM for HP and Apple though. ASUS and Acer are the two top netbook makers, with Dell pushing the Mini line close behind them.

@saucy I have tried netbooks, and I would say they are good to lookup something quick on the internet and that is about it. For anything else, typing a document of more than a paragraph they are too small, watching a movie to small, listening to music to big, playing a game not powerful enough and clunky. They are cheap and I can see them being used for limited functions while mobile, when you could not bring your full size keyboard notebook, or your iPhone/Windows Mobile sucked even worse for typing on. I am sure someone can think of a application in those constraints.

@avro "Actually the Apple numbers are closer to 50/50 computers/consumer electronic devices " Off pixie dust? Mac's are and have been decreasing coefficient of AAPL's revenues. Which goes proportionaly against the opinion makers.

@weedmonk Sales of Mac desktops, laptops, peripherals, software and services were $4.53 billion for Q1 2009 Sales of iPods, iPhones and Music for Q1 2009 were $5.63 Billion Source SEC filings That puts it at 46% for computers and services and 54% for consumer electronics and music. If you drop the music from the equation it is about 50:50 computers/consumer electronics.

I could possibly see having a netbook, if I went on a vacation and I wanted to check email, and other web based stuff (directions to places), and maybe off load photos off my camera. The only reason would be size, if it was just as easy to bring my 13inch notebook then I would go that route. In that vacation scenario I describe a small tablet, large iTouch type of device would be even better. Maybe with screen the size of a netbook.

My $399 Vista laptop has a 15.6 in widescreen. Real low rez, and it weighs around 6 lbs, but it has all that I need, so carrying a few more lbs and a wider space won't make much of a difference. It's dimensions are around 10 x 15 inches, which is small compared to me ;).

Yaaaawn... burp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbJSuduTrPs

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2009/tc20090415_602968...

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/01/18/dan-lyons-paul-thurrott-the-fak... Paul Thurrott and the Amiga. Thurrott has lived the majority of his adult life bitter and angry about Apple. He started out his tech career as an Amiga fan. This is an important detail to consider because there was something about Commodore’s Amiga that attracted an intensely religious fervor that even Commodore’s death couldn’t extinguish. For extremist nerds, the Amiga was Elvis, Jesus, alien abduction, heroine, the Qur’an, and the Klingon language all wrapped up into one product and branded with a name that suggested the idea of having a hot Spanish girlfriend: a life changing, unforgettable fantasy that had to be aggressively advocated until death.

@tayme how is the teabagging going?