Netbook use in corporations still spotty
So far, it seems netbooks are still mostly a consumer phenomenon, according to a recent survey of 158 IT professionals. Of those who are deploying netbooks, around half said they have implemented to fewer than 9% of their end-users.
Yes, we are currently deploying netbooks - 20%
No, we are not deploying netbooks and have no plans to do so - 29%
We're not deploying netbooks but have plans to do so next year - 13%
We're not deploying netbooks but have begun to consider doing so - 38%
Source: Chadwick Martin Bailey
Endele has seen that type of result in his research. "Netbooks are designed and optimized for portability," said Enderle. "Women prefer these five to one over laptop computers."
Jason Ashton, founder and CEO of Enterprise Mobility Solutions in St. Louis, said his company is rolling out over 100 netbooks, a mixture of Dell and Lenovo units, for a large bank in St. Louis that he would not name. The netbooks will be used by the sales force and by couriers working for 35 branches of the major regional bank, Ashton said. All the netbooks will have mobile broadband service from AT&T.
"All have a SIM card, and they can text just like a cell phone," said Ashton. Some customers have loaded a soft phone to catch calls forwarded from the office, but that's not part of his deployment guidelines. Soft phones consist of VoIP software and a headset to be able to send and receive phonecalls via the netbook.
Brehm from Frost & Sullivan said only about 10% of all netbooks sold have embedded mobile broadband capabilities. Of those, only 7% of customers have turned on their mobile broadband.
Performance and size: Both can surprise
Gwinn said most netbooks' performance will never win awards, but that's okay with him. He said his users spend the majority of their time with netbooks checking e-mail, Web surfing and maybe doing some light work with a Microsoft Office application.
But don't underestimate netbooks' power, Gwinn said. One faculty member cranks huge SAS models and asked for something that could handle that and still be portable. "We couldn't find a laptop powerful enough for him to do his work at home," said Gwinn. "So we gave him a netbook. He uses the remote desktop feature to connect to his desktop machine in the office."
The flip side of netbook portability is the devices' smaller size. When some people complain about the small screen, SMU's Gwinn just laughs. "People are browsing the Web all the time on their iPhones, and that screen's much smaller than a netbook."
Ashton shows customers a smartphone in one hand and a netbook in the other. Viewed together, the netbook screen and keyboard look huge.
That sweet spot works great for one of Gwinn's guinea pigs at SMU. "We're using a netbook for risk management. Our fire safety guy had to carry a laptop because a PDA was a little too small for the application. But a netbook fits elegantly in the middle."
The operating system issue
Despite netbooks' fans and advantages, IT leaders in large organizations will need to carefully think through some issues even before beginning a pilot. Key among them is the operating system issue. There has been some debate about whether Windows or Linux will ultimately win out for netbooks in the enterprise. But whichever direction they head in, companies will likely need to do something to replace the consumer versions most netbooks come with.
In the bank's pilot project, Ashton said, Windows XP Home operating systems are being upgraded to Windows XP Pro. "We're just about to start working on Windows 7," said Ashton. While a couple of IT technicians upgraded their netbooks to Windows 7, the rest of the units were upgraded to Windows XP Pro. The bank used their master Windows license, same as for their desktops, so the extra cost was minimal, and not part of Ashton's responsibility.
Companies with corporate Windows licenses from Microsoft can replace the netbook OS at no extra cost besides the use of a license. Vendors will charge extra to replace XP Home with XP Pro or Windows 7. Dell charges $65 to put either Windows 7 Professional or XP Professional SP3 on its netbook.
Neither XP Home nor Windows 7 Starter editions have the right client software to connect to Microsoft's Active Directory. Linux does, but it's still unclear whether large companies will adopt Linux on netbooks.