Tiny Notes Net Big Gains: The Netbook Revolution

You may not know it yet, but the next computer you buy is going to be a netbook. The numbers say so.

Despite their compromised feature sets and puny screens, netbooks have pulled an all-out coup d’état on the portable PC market. Currently, nine out of the top 10 best-selling laptops on Amazon are netbooks. Over 2008, manufacturers shipped 10 million netbooks. And looking farther ahead, ABI Research forecasts that manufacturers will ship 200 million ultra-mobile devices, including netbooks by 2013 — which is about the same anticipated size as the entire laptop market worldwide.

Who could have guessed that low prices and ultra portability would have struck such a chord with consumers?

People are going gaga over these pared-down devices, and manufacturers are keenly aware of that fact. Most of the big PC makers, including Toshiba, Dell, Fujitsu, Siemens and Samsung, have recently introduced their first netbooks to this rapidly expanding market.

It's somewhat ironic that netbooks are shaping up to be the computers of the future: They're hardly revolutionary; they're essentially a smaller, dumbed-down version of standard notebooks.

"You're going to start seeing netbooks become more mainstream, as [top manufacturers such as] Dell and HP begin to include more features in these devices," said Vijay Rakesh, a ThinkPanmure analyst.

Rakesh said that the relatively low price point of netbooks — they range from $300 to $500 — is their primary driving factor, especially in light of a troubled economy. He added that other key factors attracting consumers are their mobility and weight: Most netbooks weigh no more than three pounds and measure about an inch thick. …