Laptop Thoughts: Netbooks: Not Dead Yet (Really!)

"The netbook market is expected to maintain shipments of about 30 million units in 2011 with the top-three vendors to ship about six million units each, according to the word on the street here in Taipei. Netbooks are Dead is a catch phrase that's been going around since the release of Apple's iPad. However, it appears that the manufacturers have recently changed their position after looking at the market and believe that netbooks still have a place."

With a new generation of technologies on the near horizon, manufacturers have decided that there -is- a future for netbooks, and that the entire planet is not migrating overnight to tablets or smartphones. There is still a large market for these tiny laptops, and the improved hardware should further blur the distinction between netbooks and laptops. More power, low price, and great battery life is still a winning combination for consumers. As far as I can see into the future, as long as tablets remain primarily content consumers (and not content creators), there will be a place for netbooks.