Why netbook

It has all my essential software and can be plugged into projectors or monitors just like a normal laptop. Communication and quick tasks Netbooks are great for checking email, running Skype, or performing quick tasks. The devices can be started up, used, and shut down quicker than most Vista laptops take to boot. Incidentally, do not be afraid to buy a Linux-powered netbook. Even if you do not like the OS supplied, you can download and install an alternative such as the excellent Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

Working on the move Mobile phones and Blackberry devices are useful, but the small screen, tiny keyboard, and limited software makes it difficult to do real work. The global economy also did not help the netbook , with the financial crisis hitting just as it began to establish a foothold in the market and substantially reducing sales of a device that was always seen by many consumers as an indulgence to be used alongside their main computer.

Once the economy recovered, the technological landscape had changed to such an extent that the netbook was seen as outdated and surpassed. A large part of this change was the launch of the iPad, a launch which, coupled with the slew of other tablets that quickly attempted to match its success, heralded a new global obsession with tablets.

These new mobile devices , by eschewing features that were previously thought to be indispensable to a computer, offered the sort of portability that netbooks could never hope to match, while still delivering high performance and advanced features. This tablet obsession has only become stronger since Once a generation of consumers had fallen in love with touchscreens and saw virtual keyboards as the norm, there was no way back for the humble netbook, a device out of time and out of luck.

The return rate issue was even confirmed by open-source OS company Canonical, distributors of Ubuntu. As Atom processors went dual-core, a major selling point, price, evaporated. It's now easy to find full-featured although not nearly as portable laptops at about the same price as the tiny netbooks.

Another nail in the netbook coffin came with the release of tablets. When it came to buying a second, portable device, tablets have been beating netbooks hands down. Some tablets, such as the Asus Transformer or even super smartphones like Motorola's Atrix , have the ability to dock with keyboards to become notebooks. The keyboard dock for the new five-core Transformer sports its own supplemental, and Asus claims that you can get an unheard of 18 hours of use.

The final nail in the coffin is really Intel's. When the Atom processor came out, it promised much longer battery life than a traditional laptop. Up to 10 hours of use was a real selling point for road warriors, but with Intel's Sandy Bridge processors now boast real power while also being very, very energy efficient. New laptops often deliver six to 10 hours of use with fewer compromises than netbooks required. In terms of performance per watt, Intel's i3 processors score better than its Atom line.

Do netbooks have a future? Maybe, but it will mostly be at the under-powered, cheaply produced segment of the market. These machines have screens ranging from 7 inches on up. The worst thing about the screens is vertical resolution, which is generally pixels. You are constantly scrolling down on these devices.

You have to scroll down just to see the title of the first article on the NYTimes, for example. You have to use the keyboard or trackpad to scroll down, and it means taking your eyes off the screen. Remember that the iPhone has vertical resolution, and you can resize text to fit a lot of it on the screen.

The image above shows 8 lines of text in the post net of title, etc. The iPhone shows 22 lines of text.