While the lines between notebooks and netbooks have been drawn, it's still hard for most people to appreciate the differences between both machines. Most people still consider the burgeoning netbook market as part of the notebook market, while few see it for what it really is, another segregation of the already saturated portable market with yet another device gunning for your consumer dollars.
Netbooks and notebooks aren't any different when you get down to the basics; both devices share pretty similar features, which is why most people like John tend to lump them both together in the same category. Designed with portability in mind, netbooks and notebooks are computers for users on the go with programs for both work and entertainment. Factor in a keyboard, a LCD screen, hard drive, speakers and internet capability, the line between both machines becomes smudged despite our earlier statements to the contrary. The key difference the netbook offers is its smaller form factor and leaner hardware for longer useage periods, but is limited in its processing capabilities and is more optimal for simple Internet-based usage.
With the success of the ASUS Eee PC 701, vendors started jumping into the netbook bandwagon. Originally designed to be an alternative to the OLPC project for retail, the Eee PC quickly found its way to success through its cheap price and diminutive size, both of which were touted as its strengths. While demand quickly outstripped supply, consumers soon got tired of the new models that only offered a minor upgrade. It was time for a change, and the market gladly obliged with newer, faster and slightly larger models.
These newer models were a much needed upgrade and a shot in the arm for the dominant player ASUS. No longer the sole 'alpha male of the pack', ASUS was forced to further innovate and redesign their lineup to compete against the newer entries. Strangely enough, most of the newer entrants stuck to the tried and true formula of the 8.9-inch screen, with only a few innovators daring to move away from the Solid State Drive (SSD) formula and further throwing in a larger 10.2-inch screen.
Of course, in keeping to the netbook form factor, these newer models forsook the (somewhat) standard inclusion of an optical drive found in most notebooks in favor of a longer battery life and a slower but more power efficient processor. Compared to notebooks, these netbooks would generally be able to last for periods of up to 7 hours against the 2-hour mark that most notebooks generally fall under.
Stuck onto an 8.9-inch (and up to 10.2-inch) size, early netbooks were often mistaken for the handheld Ultra Mobile Portable Computers (UMPCs), though they lacked most of the features found in such devices. The smaller form factor would also result in another complain from users disappointed with the small and cramped keyboard of the first generation of netbooks.
Apart from the size limitation, netbooks were further limited by the scope of their capabilities compared to their larger cousins as netbooks rely on using ultra low-powered processors for their products instead of the standard mobile CPU chips found in notebooks. This in turn affected their performance at the entertainment level, as most High-Definition (HD) videos were choppy and unplayable (though the extent of the problem was also dependant on the video CODEC type). 3D gaming was also a moot issue as netbooks would be unable to render a playable frame rate anyhow. After all, netbooks by classification are really very Internet-centric devices optimized for simplicity, affordability and as a result are only destined for simple productivity needs on the move.
Unlike netbooks which is a relatively new entrant to the scene, notebooks have been around for a long time and feature a more mature design mind set. You'll not find the mostly familiar design that most netbooks come to share. Instead, notebook vendors and manufacturers take pride in announcing funky new designs for their notebooks and even offer skinning the notebook as part of their retail process. Some manufacturers also offer the ability to customize the hardware of a notebook, allowing consumers to choose specific hardware upgrades from the original base model.
Performance wise, notebooks tend to perform as well as their desktop counterparts, though they tend to cost more in general when you compare desktops and notebooks of similar capabilities together. Notebooks also perform much better than netbooks, given the availability of more powerful mobile processors, though most notebooks tend to suffer from a shorter battery life, lasting typically between 1 to 2 hours, compared to netbooks that at minimum last twice as long. Gaming notebooks in particular, suffer from an extremely short battery life due to the higher power consumption required for 3D gaming.
It is doubtful that netbooks will in any way threaten the sales of current notebooks; if anything, the current generation of netbooks are more likely to complement owners of laptops and desktops as an extremely portable travel companion. Based on the performance benchmarks of netbooks currently equipped with Intel's Atom processor, netbooks are nowhere even near the lower end notebooks in terms of processing power. The triumph of netbooks with regards to their staying power, light weight and relatively low cost further categorizes them as the preferred travel companion compared to notebooks.
Depending on who is being asked of their opinions, netbooks may either seem like a toy (to business executives) or a boon for the information age (for students), though the standard caveats do apply. One man's meat may after all, be another man's poison. Factor in the different market segmentation that notebooks already cater to, netbooks don't actually seem viable in the long run with their limited storage capacity (some) and limited processing power. Getting a netbook now may also seem silly, due to the increasing prices of the latest netbooks and the fact that new models are announced almost every other week in this period. Adopting a wait and see attitude could possibly be the right decision in the current volatile netbook market.
On the other side of the equation, notebooks are currently going through a rather stable and mature phase in the marketplace. As mentioned previously, the market segmentation of notebooks remains a strength that has been properly utilized so far. Need a specific type of notebook? There's no fear of not being able to obtain one, if anything, the ability to customize the hardware of a notebook before purchase makes it even easier to fulfill one's needs. Offering a wider variety of designs and configurations compared to its cousin, the netbook, notebooks look poised to remain dominant for the foreseeable future.
That's not to say that netbooks would cease to exist. For many in the developing world, the net-centric usage model is probably exactly their main usage and they could benefit from the lower priced basic variants. And for the rest of the matured markets, the netbook's primary appeal lies in the fact that they are far smaller than traditional notebooks and are good intermediary companions during travel with great battery life. You might argue that smartphones are already getting Internet friendly, but without a large screen or a keyboard, smartphones aren't comfortable or useful enough for any simple productivity needs. On the other end, the notebook's only downsides are its form factor, weight and extended uptime and this is exactly where the netbook sits to fill in the niche usage needs.
In future, when advances in battery technology, improvement in screen technologies and the materials used to build notebooks take place in addition to the ever improving processor/platform technologies (AMD Fusion comes to mind here), notebooks too can offer all the advantages of current netbooks in addition to great performance. In such a situation, netbooks would still exist, but probably take a backseat to the realms of young children's education and improving the lives of the third-world countries with simple and affordable systems. So netbooks might just be a passing phase of development in the next few years to fill the voids where laptops have yet to address.
(Hardware Zone)
