summary: user buys ridiculously cheap hardware, is offended when it dies shortly after warranty runs out.
I guess I can see that... I mean, if consumers complain about things choking when they are shortly out of warranty, it's more likely companies will put more effort into preventing such a thing. but, on the other hand, considering the price point and target market, I would not expect a netbook to last as long as a real laptop. Expecting your Chevy Corsica to last like a Toyota Camrey is just irrational. (which isn't to say you shouldn't complain and put pressure on Chevy to do better if you do get stuck with a Corsica)
It would be interesting to see more MBTF statistics for netbooks, though, if such things exist. I imagine getting such statistics beyond the warranty period is really, really difficult, just 'cause I imagine that for most users of cheap netbooks, well, if it fails and it's out of warranty, it's garbage. just counting repairs would not give you a fair number.
Well, MTBF could be tested manufacturer-side too. I'm not sure why HP/Lenovo/et. al. have not come out and said "After exhaustive testing, we've shown our netbooks last the wear-equivalent of X years of average usage, which is Y years/months more than that of competitors Z, A, and B."
My feeling is that they consider netbooks disposable and their "real" notebooks to be the focus of QC.
manufacturer mbtf testing, well, I would not in any way trust a manufacturers numbers compared to the numbers of a rival manufacturer. there are far too many small, subtle things you can do to inflate your MBTF numbers.
Even if they were trying to be honest, testing wear (where wear might be mostly, say, how often the damned thing gets dropped) is really hard. On average, how many times a year does a laptop get dropped? and is that number the same as the times a netbook gets dropped? is there something about it's size/shape (or, unknowably at product launch-time, the demographics of the buyers) that cause netbooks to get dropped more or less?
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 16.5 ms ] threadI guess I can see that... I mean, if consumers complain about things choking when they are shortly out of warranty, it's more likely companies will put more effort into preventing such a thing. but, on the other hand, considering the price point and target market, I would not expect a netbook to last as long as a real laptop. Expecting your Chevy Corsica to last like a Toyota Camrey is just irrational. (which isn't to say you shouldn't complain and put pressure on Chevy to do better if you do get stuck with a Corsica)
It would be interesting to see more MBTF statistics for netbooks, though, if such things exist. I imagine getting such statistics beyond the warranty period is really, really difficult, just 'cause I imagine that for most users of cheap netbooks, well, if it fails and it's out of warranty, it's garbage. just counting repairs would not give you a fair number.
My feeling is that they consider netbooks disposable and their "real" notebooks to be the focus of QC.
Even if they were trying to be honest, testing wear (where wear might be mostly, say, how often the damned thing gets dropped) is really hard. On average, how many times a year does a laptop get dropped? and is that number the same as the times a netbook gets dropped? is there something about it's size/shape (or, unknowably at product launch-time, the demographics of the buyers) that cause netbooks to get dropped more or less?