Have you heard of netbooks? They are those tiny, 2ish pound computers that resemble the size of DVD players but they actually don’t have a CD / DVD drive at all. Most people use them for email and web surfing and up until now, they primarily ran on Linux. Now you can get them with more memory and the Windows XP operating system. And the trend seems to be that manufacturers are making more of them with laptop equivalent (or close to it) system requirements.  

 

Why are people buying them? Well, for one thing they are cheap. Target.com has one for less than $250 and I was able to find one on Amazon.com for $179. “According to IDC 182,000 were sold in 2007 which increased to 11 million in 2008 and they are predicting 21 million this year (other analysts are predicting as many as 50 million).” The jury is still out though on whether customers are highly satisfied with these devices.  A study by Biz360 shows, “consumer advocacy for the netbook category lags behind consumer advocacy for all laptops."  

 

So who’s buying them? It appears that the bulk of customers today look like gamers and more casual users of technology. I’m really curious whether small businesses will be snapping these up in lieu of, or to complement a larger home or office system.

 

Are you considering a netbook in the next year? Do you have an opinion about netbooks vs. laptops or traditional PCs? Let us know.  

 

Andrea

 

 

Related articles and sources:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/116634-netbook-sales-explosion-amazes-the-market

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/01/netbook-user-satisfaction.ars