Posted 06/01/2009 at 05:01:41am

Well, I can see the emergence of ultra thin notebooks certainly having an impact on netbooks but the price differential (at least at the moment) is still too great.  Netbooks will remain a useful ultra portable tool for the masses for a while and then may maintain their popularity through students and education. Yes, the screens are small but what kids want to lug comparitively big machines around at school and college all day when they can get what they need from a smaller, lighter and cheaper device.
 
Gartner are also pridicting the increase in sales of Netbooks for 2009 whereas notebook sales are set to almost stagnate.  Admittedly, I am unsure as to the impact of ultra thin notebooks on these figures.
 
In the meantime, many netbooks will continue to get bigger and many notebooks will continue to get smaller until we finally agree on an ideal size at which point slate machines or something totally new will become the popular choice.  Heaven help anyone trying to keep on top of it all.
 
Tim Mulligan (http://www.mytex.co.uk/)
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