With the popularity of Linux netbooks, 4 out of Amazon’s top 10 bestseller list for notebooks now run some form of Linux. Another four run Windows XP, not Vista. The final two (which are 2nd and 10th) are MacBooks.

I think this list says a lot about the current state of laptops. First of all, 8 out of 10, all except the Macs, are netbooks. Additionally, it is worth noting that the Macs have an advantage, since there are a very limited numbers of Macs, compared to the number of Windows or Linux machines, so if you disqualify the Macs, all ten are netbooks. That says a lot about how popular netbooks are.

Then, if you look at the netbooks in the top 10 notebooks (so really the top 8 netbooks), you find that half of them run Linux and half run Windows XP. None of them run Windows Vista or Mac OS X. In my opinion, this is a strong indication that both Windows and Apple are missing the rise of UMCPs. Microsoft has at least had the sense to extend Windows XP’s life, while Apple has done nothing except the Air, which misses the point, at least in my opinion, due to its price point.

Finally, the list also tells who has the really popular UMPCs. Out of the netbooks in the top 10, Asus makes two of them (1 Linux, 1 Windows) and MSI makes 6 of them (3 Linux, 3 Windows). I should note that Asus’s ones are number 1 and number 3, while MSI’s are lower down, and that MSI’s Wind was released a lot more recently than Asus’s Eee PC. Still, though, it is interesting that MSI’s Wind line is doing so well. I would have predicted that it would be the HP MiniNote or the Acer Aspire One, but I guess not.

Certainly Amazon’s bestseller list cannot be viewed as a perfect indication of what products are doing well, but it still provides some interesting insights into what is going on.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Hardware, Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.