I know names stick but we are relatively early in the game and when you say netbook to someone who doesn't have one they look at you like a puzzled dog (head sideways). So lets change the name to …

ProductivityTop it can do all the productivity stuff and play multimedia no problem just can't do high computational stuff or render powerful game images (yet). What happens when NVidia ION starts delivering that ?

Who really runs Montecarlo type modelling on their laptop?

How about 99Laptoptop?? Meets the needs of 99% of the population??

The key to how significant a slice of the laptop market they will take now and going forward is dependent on their rise before the recission is over for when that happy event happens the meteoric rise of netbooks will definately slow down. For supporters of netbooks (I being one of them) the ideal situation is that netbook growth goes as far as possible before the recession fades into distant memory. I say distant memory because regardless of what people say when the recession is technically over it will be widespread consumer confidence and secure employment that will then drive the move back to big retail spending and that my friends will probably take some time. For some who were part of the fallout of this recession the impression and their behaviours may be affected forever just like those from the second world war, they valued everything they had and didn't buy into the big retail spend generation. That came a whole generation later.

Netbooks here to stay and down with the old clunkers I say!!

This will probably leave two segments in the market, the high end laptops and the netbooks. The current cheapo laptops will probably be replaced by netbooks as they are now producing 12″ models.

Windows XP may well be remembered as the single most successful, beloved consumer operating system of all time. It hit all the right buttons, lodged itself in an entire generation as the usage paradigm of Personal Computing. It doesn't help that Microsoft(And I don't completely believe rightly) got dragged through the mud by naysayers and reviewers on Vista.

Enter the Atom. Sure, power-wise it's about a Mid-high level Pentium III, but the thing is that's all we needed. It runs XP. It runs a web browser, which means it runs the internet by and large. And for so many, that's all we'll ever need, the internet, some light, simple games, and of course the occasional bit of light entertainment.

They didn't expect it to work as well as it did, or where it did. One wonders how well they even know themselves to come up with such a response. Of course people are looking for cheap, capable devices. Recession or no, everyone loves a deal.

And that won't change. Hell, it'll only get worse. They'll only get better at cramming more power into small form factors. Newer technologies will overtake what we have now…who knows, Atom 2 might even allow me to play Hulu 480p videos in full screen…

It's commoditization. It's inevitable. Eventually you it just gets too cheap, to easy to do a product well. I've waited for this for a long time. It's happening in all form factors, at all parts of the market. Outside of specialized machines, you can build a very capable machine for $400(I should know. I just built one for my girlfriend, and she's able to enjoy Oblivion and Source Engine games very well, thank you).

This doesn't end. It just gets more interesting. And even if Intel doesn't do it, the idea's out there. The market is proven, the customers are there. It's only going to get more interesting, and I'm happy to be able to watch.

The problem was Windows. It was adding over a hundred dollars to the MSRP of every notebook or desktop sold. Carrying that sort of dead weight meant there was a bottom to how low spec a system it made sense to offer. For example a $400 notebook vs a $500 one would have had to cut a lot of computing power for what consumers would see as a small price difference. Because for the manufacturers the fixed cost of Windows meant everything else had to cut a lot to shave that extra hundred off the final delivered, marked up ticket. On low end machines Windows was the most expensive component in the bill of materials and it the price was not open for discussion. Super large and loyal OEMs got a better price but never different prices based on final selling price of the system.

The EEE changed that because of the power of the Penguin. And to get back in the game Microsoft was forced to the one thing it had NEVER thought it would have to do, discount a Windows license, now all the way down to $15. Once Windows was cheap whole new types of computer became possible, the netbook as it was. Note that these new $500 'netbooks' will be possible even after 7, they will just become $575, or more likely refreshed models with slightly different specs for $600. But the $300 pricepoint has been opened up and something is going to stay in it. Likewise the 1KG form factor isn't going away and no, $1000 Sony stuff will no longer be the only offerings.

And the ARM invasion is going to forever open up the $200 price point unless ALL of the models in this first wave suck so hard nobody tries again for years.

Compiling software has the same slowdown.

We're not quite at the end of innovation in hardware and software with multi-touch, ever smaller manufacturing processes, etc. (although I do think year-to-year performance gains in CPU power are not quite what they used to be…I could be wrong…)

However, Microsoft wanted to get their lovely OS into more market niches…hence the Origami UMPC project. After a few iterations of new processors for the UMPC/MID platform, Asus (likely leveraging their good relationship with Intel) decided to use the processor in a small, cheap netbook. Everyone knows the rest. I do wonder if Intel was outraged at Asus' move.

I think the industry has gone in a direction from which it can't return. With dirt cheap HDs and RAM, and Intel's cheap Atom platform, the industry has committed “original sin”. The dirt-cheap laptop is here to stay. It will see pricier iterations, such as Intel's CULV processors, and higher-end SSDs, but the tiny cheap laptop is here to stay.

I think others have had similar experiences as myself: because of the low price and small size, I don't mind traveling, hiking, or boating with my netbook. I even play my iTunes from across the bathroom while in the shower. I wouldn't dare do that with my 2,000 USD production tablet, or a 2,000 USD MacBook Pro.

Low cost and small size isn't ideal for anyone's profit margins (memory manufacturers, Intel, Windows, netbook OEMs) but I think it is ideal for the consumer. Since the consumer is always right, and the industry (thanks to Asus) has committed original sin, the netbook is here to stay, come hell or high water!