Is There A Future For The Humble Netbook?

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Today I was just reflecting on how far technology has come in the last couple of years. I was sitting there with my beloved HTC Desire and realised that there was hardly anything that I couldn’t do with it that I can’t do with my laptop. I mean it’s more powerful than my very first computer and that was just over 10 years ago!

It got me thinking then, we keep shrinking the size of everything…. Our home PC’s have shrunk dramatically and more often than not you will now find them built into the monitor, our laptops have become thinner and lighter as well as becoming more powerful and we’ve even got them down to mini-laptops – or netbooks as we call them.

Asus EEE PC 1001P

But is there still a place for the humble netbook in our lives? Some may argue that there is… Yes they are dead handy when your on a plane or in a car. They are definitely easier to take out than a laptop but what about your smartphone? Due to the size of netbooks, they are limited to what they can do, in reality there’s just as much power in that little smartphone in your pocket. Realistically what are you going to do on your netbook? Check your email, browse the web, Facebook, Twitter and maybe watch a video. Can you do all this on your smartphone? Yes

I’ve often liked the idea of having a netbook, but not out of necessity, more because I think it might be handy the odd time and they do add a certain level of sophistication to your appearance. However what’s the point in splashing out the money on one when I really don’t need it?

Apart from the smartphone taking over the netbook territory, laptops are as well. You can get some laptops with very manageable 13-inch screens and sometimes even smaller, and they are getting thinner everytime but get a little power boost as well. So to me the portability factor of netbooks that was so appealing for the last couple of years is starting to fade.

Of course there is one more possibly very big nail in the coffin for netbooks – Yes you guessed it, Tablets!

Ever since the iPad, Tablet’s seem to be all the rage and everyone wants one. And there’s an increasing number of them coming to the market now with a variety of features and operating systems. All of them are just as powerful as any netbook out there, with screens just as big but are even more compact and portable. What can you do on a netbook that you wont be able to do on a tablet? (and no the iPad is not the only tablet!) I think tablets are going to slowly squeeze out netbooks and slot in quite nicely between smartphones and laptops.

The only thing netbooks still have going for them is the fact that you get a physical keyboard, and I think that could be the reason users choose to use them. Apart from that I don’t see any other reason to invest my hard earned cash in one.

Perhaps you can convince me otherwise, let me know what you think in the comments – Will Netbooks be pushed out of the market, or is there still killer feature  that will save them?