Netbooks the wave of the future?

So everyone makes a netbook these days and everywhere you look, another manufacturer is stepping into the game. Obviously, at such a low price, it’s hard not to want to make a netbook and see if you can’t get a part of the action of thousands and thousands of people who are willing to spend $400 for a netbook, but not $1000 for a notebook. So are netbooks the wave of the future?

This is definitely an interesting and tricky question to answer, and obviously, impossible to say. However, considering the proliferation of these inexpensive machines and how many manufacturers have one or are about to have one, it seems hard to argue with the idea.

Rob Enderle seems to think that a change is about to happen in the industry and that the netbook is going to become the new notebook. However, he has some interesting opinions that netbooks aren’t ready for prime time just yet.

He points to the awful performance of most netbooks, as measure by processing and video power. That’s certainly true, but I think it’s reasonable to expect that most people who buy a $500 notebook at Best Buy aren’t expecting to be able to play Crysis on it at high, so why should we be expecting to do the same on something less powerful than a notebook?

Regardless, he points to this low performance, combined with an OS that isn’t really designed for the netbook, as being the major hurdles that manufacturers need to jump before this change in the marketplace can happen and the netbook can become the new ubiquitous portable.

I’m not sure I agree here, but that may be because I’m comfortable with linux. For someone who just bought one and knows nothing about linux, there could certainly be a problem. But in fairness, doesn’t it cover the majority of what needs to be done? Remember, netbook != high end notebook.

Still, I do think there’s something to the argument that a netbook-specific OS could benefit the overall platform. He points to the iPhone’s interface as an example of what a good OS/interface can do for a device, and damn if I don’t agree on that point at least.

In the end, I certainly see what he’s trying to say about netbooks and their role in the current market, but I just don’t agree on the severity of the problems. However, I can see the netbook taking over in the near future even though anyone can go to Best Buy or Circuit City now and get a notebook for $500. Price wins, and $400, or $329, is a lot less than $500 when you start looking at percentage.

Also, with the move in the computer industry to the cloud, the netbook is the perfect device to take advantage of this. By using online services and keeping storage online, one could use a netbook to access the data and do the work, and the limitations of power and OS aren’t a factor. Think about it: google docs on a netbook isn’t any less usable than google docs on a cheap notebook, and you have the added bonus of your documents being in a secure location. And of course, since every netbook out there has USB ports and SD slots, you can still store your work on small storage without worrying about something happening to the netbook’s main storage. Win-win.

Found via jkOnTheRun.