The Year of the Netbooks

The list of best selling computers increasingly is being dominated by a new class of devices named netbooks. Netbook computers are predicted to drastically change the computing scene. The year 2009 has been predicted already to be the year of the netbooks. A netbook is a small portable laptop computer designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet. Unlike laptop computers which are also called notebooks, netbooks are smaller, cheaper, less power-hungry and run lesser-known operating systems. The cheapest laptop from Apple costs about $ 200-400. For most professional people, netbooks could mean excellent secondary computers, while for children and the elderly, they could make great first computers. The word “netbook” is a composite of the words: Internet and notebook. Expectedly, these devices are designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet. They can be used for simple office jobs and internet-email communication purposes which are almost the only things most people do with their normal computers.

Most netbooks run either the home edition of Windows XP or GNU and Linux, the free/open source operating systems like Vista, XP professional require much power to run well on a netbook. The most common size for a netbook is 9 or 10 inch screens, weight of about 1 kg, and keyboards smaller than those found in normal laptops.

Looking at price, a Linux- based netbooks costs less than a Windows based one. The definition of a netbook also includes its price and some experts argue that anything costing over about $ 500-600, is not a netbook.
In a short time, many different varieties of netbooks from different manufactures have already hit the market. It is, therefore, hard to draw a “standard” specification of them. However, a few specifications seem to be standard among all of them. Most netbooks run on processors like Intel Atom, VIA C7, Celeron, AMD Geode and AMD Turion. (all 1 -2 GHz) All of them have support for WI-Fi, Ethernet (LAN), external VGA ( monitor) and contain built- in camera, a few USB ports, headphone- jacks and slots for extra memory( RAM). Their memory capacity (RAM) ranges from 0.5 to 4 GB, though 1-2 GB seems to be most common.
Almost all netbooks do not contain an optical disk drive (CD/DVD drive) and hard disk drive (some do contain). Instead, they use solid-state storage devices like flash-drives and SD cards because of their size, weight and high durability. Solid-state storage of 8-160 GB is most common. These devices also do not contain a telephone modem. A netbook won’t replace your work computer, but it can be a great thing to carry during your tours and off- work hours.
By late 2008, netbooks had begun to take market share away from laptops. It is estimated that almost thirty times more netbooks were sold in 2008 comparing 2007. (11.4 million). For 2009 sales are expected to jump to 35 million, rising to an estimated 139 million in 2013. Netbooks are evolving into "super-portable laptops for professionals” according to Wired Magazine, one of the greatest magazines for Technology. kn_sub2006@yahoo.com