Informed CIO: Netbooks
The New Option: Netbooks
Challenge Notebooks' Dominance
We've seen laptop alternatives before—bricks, iPAQs, smart pads and "ultra portables" that were never quite cheap or convenient enough to take a real bite out of the market. What's different about netbooks? Simple: They're really, really inexpensive and provide better functionality than any smartphone. We're not surprised that consumers and business users alike are snapping these babies up like Twitter stock options.
Still, some CIOs wonder whether netbooks are ultimately a consumer play. The answer is unquestionably no. In our recent InformationWeek Analytics Windows 7 survey of 1,414 business technology professionals, 36% of respondents said they already have some level of netbook use in their organizations today. This saturation is expected to grow to 72% of companies over the next 24 months, with 19% planning extensive deployments.
While you can't ignore the category, CIOs do need to educate themselves on what netbooks are capable of today and how the landscape of competitors, hardware options and OS choices will dramatically change over the coming two years. In this report, we'll outline 10 key questions you need to review to see where netbooks fit within your organization.
Table of Contents
3 Author's Bio
4 Little Device, Big Impact
4 Figure 1: Current and Future Netbook Use
6 Figure 2: Typical Device Configurations
7 Figure 3: 2009 Consumer Reports Usability Scores For Laptops and Notebooks
9 Figure 4: Impact of Vista and XP Use on System Policies
12 Figure 5: VDC: Netbook Unit Shipments Through 2013
10 Questions to Ask:
5 1 | Does everyone understand what a netbook is—and is not?
7 2 | Have we mapped our employees' computing behavior?
8 3 | Can they play a role in our cloud and virtualization strategy?
8 4 | What’s our current plan for mobile phones?
9 5 | How are we going to manage them?
10 6 | How is our green policy shaping up this year?
11 7 | How open are you to Microsoft alternatives?
12 8 | How open are we to Intel alternatives?
13 9 | How will our organization account for these devices?
14 10 | Are netbooks just a fluke?
About the Author
Mike Healey is the president of Yeoman Technology Group, an engineering and research firm focusing on maximizing technology investments for organizations, and an InformationWeek Analytics contributor. He has more than 23 years experience in technology and software integration.
Prior to founding Yeoman, Mike served as the CTO of national network integrator GreenPages. He joined GreenPages as part of the acquisition of TENCorp, where he served as president for 14 years. Prior to founding TENCorp, Mike was an international project manager for Nixdorf Computer and a Notes consultant for Sandpoint Corp.
Mike has taught courses at MIT Lowell Institute and Northeastern University and has served on the Educational Board of Advisers for several schools and universities throughout New England. He has a BA in operations management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MBA from Babson College.
He is a regular contributor for InformationWeek, focusing on the business challenges related to implementing technology. His work includes analysis of the SaaS market, green IT and operational readiness related to virtualized environments.
