Netbook Boom Likely To End With Better Economy

I disagree because I think there are two fundamental drives to the Netbook craze that are not dependent on the recession.

1. Netbooks typically are not the main laptop of the user. As such, they do not need to be super fancy and used more as a very portable backup.

2. As computers get more powerful, more and more people are finding that most applications can run without massive computing power. Thus, people are starting to find Netbooks to be a much better value than their more expensive counter-parts.

What a load of hogwash. I'm considering adding a netbook to the stable. This would add to the 3 laptops and 5 desktop computers already in this house. The reason is for the portability, not because of the power. Small enough to take with you, large enough to have a proper screen and keyboard and run real applications. They're everything PDA's definitively are not. People buy them for the cheapness and portability, not because they can't afford something bigger.

Rubbish. If people have plenty money to buy laptops for themselves, they'll still buy netbooks for their kids. In fact the relative lack of power will be an asset, since parents won't want to think they're buying one so the kids can run Crysis.

Weren't they booming before the economy tanked? They're small, dirt cheap and you can get online with 'em. That's not a hard sell no matter what the economy.

Ridiculous. Netbooks and phones are convergent.