A small-sized, thin notebook, which is popularly known as Netbook, has been the key factor in the growth of laptop market over the last couple of years. As far I as know, the first concept of a netbook, a small, low-cost version of a typical laptop, was launched by OLPC’s $100 laptop project, but the credit of popularizing this sub-category of laptop surely goes to Asus EEE PC which was launched towards the end of 2007 and was an instant hit in the market. Gradually, market leaders like Dell, HP, Lenovo also stepped into netbook market, looking to grab as much share of the fast growing laptop market as possible.
Netbook has been very much popular among the laptop users and netbook market is seeing extensive growth now-a-days. Laptop makers are creating many sub-categories in netbook market, bringing variations in size, cost, weight and other features, targeting wider number of laptop users. Here, the processor makers like Intel are also playing a huge role by launching chips designed for netbooks. Intel is going to launch a processor which will fit into netbooks with the same performance level of a notebook processor. Laptop makers are trying to create niche market among the ever-increasing netbook users.
Companies are launching different variations of a single model, providing different colors, features, sizes etc and all these are now available for a considerable low-cost cost, and thus, users who were unable to own a laptop are now hoping to become a proud owner of a laptop PC which they can carry in their hand bag while they are working out or traveling. It is true that netbooks are way behind to meet the demand of a high-tech users, but the fact is that most of the people are general users who do not need high-tech support in their PCs. Naturally, netbooks have become very popular among the laptop users and the popularity is skyrocketing at this moment with more companies entering in the market with more varied offers.
So, there are enough reasons to fear about the notebook market because the way netbooks are getting slender and lighter with price tag being cut short pretty regularly, it seems that the emergence of netbook might leave a negative mark on the laptop market. Many even fear that traditional laptops may go disappear from the market with time, if the increasing popularity of netbooks continues for next few years. However, it is still true that netbooks have its limitations and can not entirely replace traditional notebooks, but to some extent, netbooks might decrease the popularity of notebooks.
The increasing popularity of netbooks could be a positive sign too for the notebook market. How? Well, you may not deny that the emergence of netbook PCs is increasing laptop users around the world. Before Netbook came into existence, there were many who did not even dream to buy a laptop because of its high price, but many of those people are now attracted to netbook PCs, mainly for its low-cost advantage. Thus, the growth of laptop market has got a massive boost by the unexpected users who were not the target customers of traditional laptop. Now that, these unexpected users are using netbooks and getting the taste of operating a PC on their laps, some of these users might feel the need of having a larger version of netbook, and thus, they are likely to be interested in notebook. So, the impact of Netbook on Notebook could go eitherway. Now, just wait and see what happens in the laptop world in the coming years.
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