Netbooks evolution in my vision

I loved netbooks from the first time ASUS announced the EEE PC. What’s not to like about a computer touted to cost 200$ and do basic office stuff, browsing and multimedia? The “crazy idea” caught up people’s attention and in less than a year every big notebook brand has it’s own netbook in their own product lineup.

Last winter holidays netbooks sales skyrocketed (on Amazon.com 17 of 25 bestseller notebooks were sub 500$ netbooks). Everything seems good but I think I’ve spotted where all this thing is going.

But first let’s remember the times where 12 inch notebooks were called ultra-portables and were about 2000$ at least. That’s a lot for a less powerful computer with less features, smallish screen and cramped keyboard.

Netbooks will go slowly towards bigger screens: 12-13 inch and will add up performance, but not too much as they will trail regular laptops in performance figures. What makes me say that netbooks will transition towards bigger screens? Well, size matters, smaller it better in laptops but to a point where it’s hard to see fully fledged websites without horizontal and vertical scroll.

Also typing on a small keyboard is no joy, even if you put a high price on portability. That’s why netbooks will retain their 1-1.5 kilograms weight but in a slimmer package thanks to bigger screens. I’m pretty sure that in the next 12-18 months we’ll see netbooks as half size/half price notebooks.