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Remember this little guy? That’s right, it’s a netbook. Remember those things? They were affordable, light and had pretty great battery life. But a lot has changed since the netbook segment was introduced 5 years ago — and it looks like the little guy’s not gonna make it.
When Dell announced last month that it would cease production on netbooks, it was an obvious sign of what was to come. Now, just under less than a month later, the last remaining netbook manufacturers in Asus and Acer have announced that they’re done with it as well. Netbooks are officially dead.
It’s not a surprise really, tablets and ultrabooks have made the netbook pretty useless these days. When you want extreme portability and ease of use, get a tablet. When you need something similar to a netbook, ultrabooks are basically the improved version — and their prices have gone down in recent years, making them a more affordable product.
Still, we have the netbook to thank for not only driving down prices in the market but perhaps more importantly, making computers more accessible to everyone.
[via Gizmodo]
About the author: Enrique View all posts by Enrique
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netbooks are still good for many folks, IMO. it is the craze of the tablet that is making us lose interest in netbooks. also, wrong OSs have been used in netbooks. i have used an XP notebook by dual-booting in jollycloud, and it felt much better in jollycloud.
@mukhi: I agree with you. But when ultrabooks hit the same price point, then I won’t see why anyone would get one over an ultrabook instead.
@Enrique: ultrabook @$300-400???
@mukhi: Well not right now of course! But in a couple of years, why not?
I am very happy with my XP based netbook that cost $199. I’m about to give it an upgrade in memory and HDD.
@Enrique: well, but by then, some super-ultra/nano book will possibly come up, LMFAO.
@mukhi: Haha! And the cycle will go on and on!
Tablet is great for **looking at stuff**, and I own a few, but I still prize my netbook for an easy to carry device that lets me **do stuff**.
@Bruce: This. Although I don’t have a netbook…
@Bruce: i agree. i will never use a tablet for doing (read: creating, editing). oh well, if tablets that can be docked on to a keyboard come up with a “capable” OS at a low price, i may like it as my future device.