Linux Netbooks Are Returned 4X More Than Win XP Versions, Says MSI
Submitted by srlinuxx on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 20:51.
Netbooks were supposed to be this great inroad for Linux development, but it turns out that the XP side of the netbook business is doing a lot better in the area of customer satisfaction: MSI today told Laptop that, according to internal studies, "The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks."
We have done a lot of studies on the return rates and haven’t really talked about it much until now. Our internal research has shown that the return of netbooks is higher than regular notebooks, but the main cause of that is Linux. People would love to pay $299 or $399 but they don’t know what they get until they open the box. They start playing around with Linux and start realizing that it’s not what they are used to. They don’t want to spend time to learn it so they bring it back to the store. The return rate is at least four times higher for Linux netbooks than Windows XP netbooks.
Seen Here, quoting this interview
netbook Linux hit the wall ? Marketing strategy and how ?
Favorite story about marketing is Ford Lincoln cars. In early 1990s, Lincoln had two models and sold 18,000 cars per year. we told them, they probably had only 9,000 customers each owned both models. So, we talked Lincoln into having 5 models. Instead of selling 45,000 cars they sold over 96,000 cars per year since.
Netbooks will have three operating systems, Linux, XP and Vista. Each owner may have all three turned on at the same time. Linux has more apps, XP is familiarity, and Vista for even more multimedia experience.
Netbooks will eat into notebook market when instant on and longer battery life gets more attention.
It all comes down to familiarity and coolness
People want familiarity. XP is familiar. What they will do, is learn something new if it's really cool, which is the case with OS X. Linux doesn't fit in either class.
Linux will gain momentum with the general public rather slowly. Not all of these netbooks are being returned. Some are being converted to XP by the users, and some are just left as is. When enough of those that decide to use the installed version of Linux grow, Linux will win new friends and expand.