Netbooks' high return rate due to linux

Thursday, October 09, 2008

(Screenshot of Linux on the Asus Eee PC)

The popular mini-notebooks, also called netbooks, suffer from a higher return rate than regular notebooks, mainly due to the fact that most netbooks run Linux, according to the director of U.S. sales of MSI, Andy Tung. Linux netbooks are returned 4 times as often as ones that run Windows XP. An excerpt from the interview with Laptopmag.

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.

Just an example that to consumers usability might not be the most important thing (for most of them Windows based computers would be far more easy to operate), but that to users usability indeed is an important product quality.

[via Bright]

UPDATE
An article appeared on ZD Net in response to the interview mentioned above: Linux 'teething problems' affect netbook returns. In the article the Linux vendor Canonical says it sees similar return rates with its machines. However, the software vendor also indicates that this does not mean that Linux is faulty, but that consumers got something different than they expected.

"Some people are misbuying, and then they send it back because it's not Windows," he said. "What would be more worrying would be if they simply didn't like it for itself; if they used it and it didn't work. But that doesn't seem to be the case."

6 reactions:

Leslie Satenstein said...: PCs not selling due to Vista. Users downgrade to XP.

It was reported that corporations will wait to 2010 before upgrading their hardware.

Vista is too expensive. Sales are for the users who only know one product. (Remember when the only car was a Ford)

Linux is in wide use (China, India, much of Asia) for populations in the billions. Microsoft is dying a slow death.; 3:05 PM
Jasper (uselog) said...: Yes, well... I was kind of expecting this kind of reactions when writing something (however slightly) negative about Linux.

I am not saying that Vista is good. And I am not saying that Linux is bad. In fact it's not even me saying anything: it is the sales director of a company selling netbooks that has noticed that he gets more product returns if his netbooks runs Linux than if they runs Windows.

This - I'm stressing this once more - does not mean that Windows is by definition better than Linux. It does mean, however, that most people are used to computers that run Windows, and expect a computer to run Windows. Nothing more, nothing less.

With regard to Microsoft dying a slow death, I really don't have much of an opinion about that.; 3:19 PM
Leslie Satenstein said...: Jason

Your blog was oriented to criticizing Linux and implying that the cause of returns was that it was faulty. You failed to inquire why they were being returned, and I call that poor reporting.

I have been using various operating systems since 1960, that is probably before you were born. When it came out, XP was the pits, and now is reasonable.

Vista requires a dual core system, and it is extremely resource consumptive. Vista is a great for hardware vendors. After the last service patch, it has improved but Microsoft indicated it has a short life. Vista reminds me of another expensive (Windows ME) experiment.

The laptop you described has insignificant hardware upgrade capability. You are on a version of XP that has been hacked to fit, has no upgrade ability and will not be supported in the future. Microsoft has said so.

The high rate of return is not due to technical failures of linux such as crashing, or poor performance, it is because customers were not told it was Linux. Older people seem to have troubles learning new things, they can't make the transition from one operating system to another and I believe they are the ones doing the returns. As proof of adaptability, I provide technical support people who have left XP for Vista, because of a computer replacement, so I know what I am saying.

Linux will be upgradable on that laptop hardware. You can even change Linux versions if you desire. And you do not require the purchase of anti-virus programs or spam filters. What is the cost of XP, Anti-virus, Disk defraggers, MS Office, and some other utilities. It is at least 600 dollars.

Linux saves you that money, performs more efficiently, and is virtually virus attack proof. There is an anti-virus program available for Linux to prevent one from forwarding an email or web page with a virus to a Microsoft user. That virus does not affect the Linux system.

Again, the stores did not state that the product was Linux based, and $50 dollars less expensive because of it. If customers wanted minimal XP, that is what they should expect, and to expect to pay more.

One last thing, linux has better support then XP or Vista. Open Source software is the reason.

Microsoft sales are down in the operating system arena, so are the value of their shares. Microsoft is branching out, away from operating systems to protect their revenue base. Watch their announcements.

Leslie; 5:34 PM
Jasper (uselog.com) said...: I am (still) not saying that Linux is a bad operating system. I am saying is that someone is saying that if he sells netbooks to consumers that run Linux, he's getting a 4 times higher return rate. And I agree with you, this is probably due to the fact that these people did not expect the netbook to run Linux, and they were not told that it did not ran Windows. Some users are willing to adapt to this unexpected and somewhat different operating system. Mind you, this still does not make Linux a bad operating system. It just means that people like to get what they expected, and some people to not like to invest time in learning to operate something new. Did I mention that this does not make Linux a bad operating system? It's just an operating system that the majority of the people have somewhat less experience with. And if you put that operating system on a netbook and don't tell people, they return it more often than if you put Windows on it and don't tell them anything. From a usability point of view that's interesting.; 9:07 PM
John, Belfast said...: All this article is saying that Windows is the norm ie. what people expect.

I recently went looking for a netbook and a sales assistant warned me "it runs Linux". She actually told me "Linux is a 'looking' Operating System and Windows more of 'doing' Operating System." It made me laugh out loud in the middle of the store.... I bought the Linux model.

If I wasn't aware of various Operating Systems I'd probably assume it came with Windows as that has been the way of it since time immemorial. One can only hope that this trend stops, the Sales Assistants become more aware of the products they are selling and "Linux by default" increases.; 2:25 AM
Jasper (uselog.com) said...: Hi John, that was indeed what I was trying to bring across: windows is what people expect.; 2:22 PM