Netbooks: What's All The Fuss?

Walk through any coffee shop, public park or airport terminal and you're certain to see folks hunched over and squinting at tiny netbook screens, tapping away on the devices' Chiclet-like keyboards. Despite the ergonomic implications of netbooks, their price and portability clearly hit a chord with consumers.

Typically priced below $400, netbooks offer a diminutive form factor, usually weighing less than three pounds and sporting 10-inch or smaller screens. They're also known for their low-power processors, which pack less oomph than those found in their notebook cousins but also promise longer battery life. Most commonly, they come with Microsoft XP Home or Linux operating systems.

But the future of netbooks in the business sector is still somewhat murky. Companies will have to find ways of weaving netbooks into their business operations in a way that generates cost savings without heightening security risks. That may yet come to pass, but for now, most organizations are watching and waiting on the sidelines.

"We're getting a lot of inquiries, but so far we haven't seen any companies making a broad transition to netbooks," said Ron Perkes, vice president of product marketing at Tangent, a Burlingame, Calif.-based system builder.

Netbooks certainly have their share of detractors, for whom usability, security and durability issues remain a stumbling block. Although netbooks have more than enough power for basic computing tasks such as e-mail, word processing and Web browsing, their small screens don't lend themselves to large spreadsheets and other business applications, said Travis Fisher, executive vice president at Inacom Information Systems, a Salisbury, Md.-based solution provider.

These types of limitations have led to the stigmatization of netbooks as mere novelty or fad items, and that label could be tough to shake. Last October, when Steve Jobs was asked whether Apple would enter the netbook market, the CEO responded: "We don't know how to build a sub-$500 computer that is not a piece of junk." Jobs also suggested that Apple's iPhone could be considered a netbook in terms of the experience it provides to users.

Still, if netbooks continue their current growth path, it's hard to imagine that they won't eventually gain a modicum of traction in the corporate world. Analyst firm Gartner forecasts global netbook sales of 5.2 million this year, 8 million in 2009 and 50 million in 2012. ABI Research, meanwhile, predicts worldwide netbook shipments of about 35 million this year, and 139 million in 2013.

Netbooks are also making significant headway in the channel. Netbook sales through distributors jumped 66 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared with the previous quarter, and nearly one in four notebooks sold through distribution during the quarter was a netbook, according to NPD Group.

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