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They sold well. In my experience working at Staples at that time, small and cheap beat any other consideration for many customers. Hard to argue with a $99 PC.

A few months later, they'd realize it wasn't working out, come back, scream at us, and buy something bigger and faster.

I really liked the MSI one I had, but I knew what I was getting into.

Yes, a ton of people bought them. Then they took them home and used them. Then they bought something else.

Now we don't really have mass-production netbooks anymore.

Part of that was incidental factors. The 701 happened partly because of a glut of cheap, standardised screens designed for that first generation of in-car dashboard sat-nav systems.

It didn't help that those screens weren't particularly good.

Even Apple made an 11" laptop in that era!

I mean, I did buy one =)