IS there a comparison chart with the current Netbook processors, to a Pentium 2/3 speed?

Thanks for the link and sharing your thoughts. I want to call your attention to the last paragraph, in which I make the point that I am NOT calling it a fad, and that I don’t think netbooks will go away.

I hesitate to add the predictable “It was a fad” bullet point, because I don’t think netbooks fall into that category. They won’t go away, and I think they’ll remain a niche product. The buzz may be diminishing, but there are still folks who’ll find this type of computer useful. It simply isn’t for everyone, as its early fans ardently hoped.

Any of the theories I put forth — or all of them — could be the cause for the drop. But I do think the hot buzz for them, which was largely caused by geek early adopters, is done.

Dwight.

Netbooks/tablets running a desktop OS don’t offer all of these same revenue opportunities for the operators.

“Net-books” are here to stay and will continue to dominate sales. With the economy the way it is, more people are just looking to make do with what they have a bit longer, perhaps upgrading their RAM, or even looking at Presto to give them that ‘Just-like-a-new-speedy-pc-feel”

What I think companies like Apple are failing to realize is that the churn rate of these small PCs is going to be higher. Instead of buying a full pc and keeping it for 3 or more years, I am willing to bet that netbooks owners will on the whole replace their machines every 18 months to two years.

What better way to build a new platform of loyal users, and make more money out them in the long term?

If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if netbooks, ultimately, end up supplanting notebooks on the top of the food chain. For most people, they just make sense.

Fast forward 12-18 months. Economy aside, we’ll see Windows 7 on machines everywhere and Intel pushing out Medfield. Win 7 gives netbook users something XP couldn’t and Vista wouldn’t, while Medfield at 32nm should give netbook performance comparable to today’s Core 2 Duo notebooks.

Next years netbooks will give today’s $500-$600 notebooks a serious run for their money, both in performance and user-friendliness. At the “over $800″ price point notebooks still reign supreme, but below $800 I’d think netbooks and notebooks provide “friendly competition”, and that, for consumers, can only be a good thing.

Maybe there’s a market saturation reached? The number of people who can afford to spend money on a new laptop/netbook is certainly not unlimited. And the number of people who want a “companion machine” for their main laptop is even smaller.

What, other than smaller size, does a netbook offer me over a two-year-old laptop? After all, a two year old laptop is just as net-savvy (if not more) than a netbook (given that the usually larger/higher-res screen makes surfing a better experience).