Summary
Nokia’s Booklet 3G netbook is best for students who will benefit by the longer battery life and have the tolerance for a small screen.
Analysis
Nokia’s first netbook is appropriately named Booklet 3G because it will appeal to students with the longer battery life. Students want to be “always connected” and view information beyond a smartphone capability. Students can withstand a 10” netbook screen and will take advantage of the Booklet lasting 12 hours if fully charged. Most netbook buyers supplement their PC and laptop, and are unlikely to exceed the average 4 hours of battery charge on a HP, Acer, Lenovo or Asus. At a Santa Clara dinner speech this week, Dell’s CEO made a strong point of netbook fatigue with the statement “But about 36 hours later, they’re saying ‘The screen’s gonna have to go. Give me my 15-inch screen back.” Netbooks are for short and frequent communications that are too troublesome to get out the laptop or go to a PC and too complicated for a smartphone screen. Netbook usage behavior sets the price at a couple hundred U.S. dollars comparable to a touchscreen smartphone and about half the price of a basic laptop. Nokia will not have sell-through on the Booklet at $599 for a Wi-Fi user. The $299 with a two-year commitment to an AT&T data plan is unrealistic both in monthly fees and dissatisfied iPhone users. And long battery life will become competitive with Fujitsu’s LifeBook having an ECO button to extend the battery to over 7 hours.
Best Buy and AT&T were exuberant in announcing Nokia’s Booklet. Best Buy pitched its “Walk Out Working”, and AT&T’s Mobility President commented about “customers can’t get enough mobile broadband” while alluding to AT&T’s “mobile broadband network leadership.” The buyer of a Nokia Booklet is probably tech-savvy not needing help and also a heavy Wi-Fi user unwilling to overpay for carrier usage. The tech-savvy and Wi-Fi profile matches the student-type except for the $599 price. Nokia perhaps has to cut distribution costs and create demand like Apple’s history. Nokia does partner with California college campuses. Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley have Nokia Research Centers, Nokia teamed with UCLA for a GoGreen campaign, and the University of California at San Diego has a High-Power Amplifier Laboratory partly funded by Nokia. California campuses are perhaps a more targeted pilot of Nokia's Booklet with online fulfillment instead of Best Buy stores.
Gregg Kail consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
