Netbooks - The new kid in the street

Netbooks are a new type of portable computing. They are lightweight computers with a small screen, usually around 7-12'’ screen and have no CD/DVD drive. They typically have about 8GB of storage and 1 GB of RAM or less. As a result, they cannot run on Vista and use XP. They cannot be used for photo or video storage or for, gaming, installing software but are more for those that use the Internet and email or word processing on the go and do not care too much about the other things computers can do. Its also handy as an extra travailing computer while the main PC stays at home.

As you can see in the picture, netbooks are ultra small so one can easily open up any where and start typing or surfing wireless. I personally would not use a netbook. I cannot store a lot of pictures, video or have a lot going at once as the RAM and CPU are not powerful. 8GB or even 80GB is nothing these days. Having no disk drive is also a negative for me. As well as the tiny screen. Many people would be in the same boat. An for those into gaming on the computer, forget it. There's no need for USB ports because it has the memory and power of a ten year old machine.

One thing that's important to remember is that computer storage could one day be like electricity. You plug your computer into the Internet and all of your stuff is on some big computer in another part of the globe among thousands of other peoples stuff. In this world, the netbooks small space on its computer would not matter much. Until then a lot of people would never buy a netbook. But it comes at a time when credit is tight. Netbooks are a about $300 while a regular notebook will cost you at least $700 for something decent. A lot are moving off the shelfs and companies are rushing to fill the demand. It will be interesting to see where the netbooks will take us. Experts say they will not cut into smartphone sales in spite the fact that smartphones can almost as much as these netbooks.