Bye Bye Netbooks: Dell Kills The Mini 10 As It Shifts Focus To “Thin And Powerful”

Once upon a time netbooks ruled the land. But with the rise of tablets and miniaturization of traditional x86 CPUs, the mini notebooks are quietly dying. The latest victim is the Dell Mini. Liliputing discovered by way of MyDellMini.com that the products are no longer listed on Dell.com. They’re dead, my friends, and it seems ultrabooks and similar products are to blame.

Dell is reportedly shifting focus away from the inexpensive notebooks. A company spokesperson confirmed with The Verge that the product line is indeed finished and Dell doesn’t have plans to release products on future Intel platforms. Instead, Dell will focus on “thin and powerful” notebooks, a not so subtle nod towards ultrabooks even though that description can fit a few of the company’s current notebook lines.

Both Intel and AMD are focusing heavily on CPU platforms that allow for ultrathin notebooks. Some will be as thin as the MacBook Air, the ultrabooks, but still others will be relatively thin while not fitting within the traditional definition of an ultrabook.

But with Dell’s inexpensive Mini line gone, it leaves a curious space open at the low-end of Dell’s product line. Other company’s like Acer previously stated that it was cutting a drastic amount of product lines in an effort to tighten up profit margins and the like. Either Dell is looking to do the same, or, and this is completely reasonable, the company is a prepping a product such as a tablet able to live comfortably in the Mini’s previous $300 – $400 price point. CES is less than a month away. Dell might have thrown away the Mini to clear room in the fridge for a more tasty treat.

Sony Pins Its Future On Gaming

Sony can’t get much right these days. They’ve dissolved their partnership with Ericsson so they have no dog in the mobile fight and their Blu-Ray/3D TV push is, at best, an afterthought with consumers. Nobody wants Sony laptops, what with all the ultrabooks out there. The only thing that can save them is gaming.

The first great Sony hope is the Vita, Sony’s handheld gaming console. Designed to offer a superior gaming experience over the only other portable consoles, the Nintendo DSi and 3DS, the Vita is already selling out in Japanese pre-orders and could be next year’s hot selling gadget. None of the gaming greats except for Nintendo has progressed on the hardware front in years, so the Vita might be just the jolt Sony needs to survive.

But the Vita isn’t a sure thing, especially since Sony is hurting in multiple ways. As Reuters notes:
The videogames unit made a first profit in 5 years in the year to March, as it squeezed production costs for the Playstation 3, boosting profits for the whole company. The unit’s sales accounted for more than a tenth of Sony’s 7 trillion yen in total revenue.

This comes in conjunction with a fall in Sony stock after a major downgrade. Things couldn’t be worse. Sure, the Vita is interesting, but is it enough to pull the company out of the death spiral?

Sony played the wrong game for too long. Convinced they still had a say in the CE market, they pushed multiple technologies – Memory Stick, Blu-Ray, ATRAC – for far too long just as consumers were getting wise to their tricks. Their losing streak started when they lost the VHS/Betamax war, and there was no way they were going to sell an ATRAC-playing Walkman over an iPod.

These pointless battles distracted Sony management enough to ensure that the CE space wasn’t theirs anymore, resulting in a number of lower-priced, high-quality competitors that made Sony look like the Bose of TVs – too expensive for most people and with benefits too esoteric for many to understand.

In the end, I think Sony is done. Samsung owns the mobile space and much of the CE space. Vizio owns the low end. Gaming is still the wild card, but without a string of hits, 5 more years of profitless financial statements will not make the company much stronger.