Mike Elgan's Open Letter to the Ultraportable PC Industry

Mike Elgan of Datamation has written an insightful open letter to the ultraportable PC industry. It reads, in part -

Dear Industry,

Another CES has come and gone, and you've demonstrated yet again that you haven't got a clue when it comes to designing, building or marketing an ultraportable computer.

With the exception of ASUS Eee PC, all the tiny laptops unveiled at CES and available in the market are too bloated, too small, too heavy or way too expensive...Why don't you notice that people are buying up the ASUS Eee PC like crazy and ignoring YOUR product?

The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, the Godfather of Tech Journalism, seems to share your lack of understanding about this category in a review of the ASUS Eee PC... "its tiny 7-inch display is just too stingy for serious work" and concluded that "the Eee is a valiant effort, but it still has too many compromises to pry most travelers away from their larger laptops."

"Serious work"? "Pry travelers away from their larger laptops"?

This is why you fail: You keep producing devices designed for "serious work" and as laptop replacements. As a result, nearly all ultraportables are far too expensive, bloated and laden with needless functions. Nobody wants them...

An ultraportable is an additional device, useful for "non-serious" work, like writing, e-mail and web surfing when you can't or don't want to bring along your laptop...

You have tried and failed to produce a successful ultraportable, when the criteria for doing so couldn't be more obvious. So I'm going to spell it out for you...

1) Cheaper than $500.

2) Wireless.

3) A big keyboard is more important than a big screen.

4) Simple UI.

5) Solid state.

6) Instant on, instant off.

7) Rugged, water resistant.

Industry, if you can't match these criteria, then don't waste our time...All you need now is to open your eyes and see what people are clearly demanding: Cheap and easy, quick-and-dirty connected computing on the go.

Yours Truly,

Mike

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The complete article can be read here.