2010:The "death of the netbook" and the "year of the tablet"?

Barely a week into 2010 and techies all over the world are already proclaiming the downfall of 2009′s favorite gadget — the netbook. Black Friday’s hottest item is going RIP, says all my fellow tech nerds while sipping their designer coffee and hunched over their work terminals. A blog at NYTimes.com says it this way:

Stuck between a rock and a hard place — the rock being the still-evolving smartphone, the hard place being the emerging tablet computer — the netbook computer would seem to be doomed. The netbook, which rose to great popularity only about a year ago, may, in fact, become the victim of the technology that helped create such a small computer. Ultrathin machines now offer more power in much lighter packages, smartphones with increased Web functionality and more sophisticated processors will eclipse the netbook’s rather limited abilities, and the tablet computer is most likely waiting in the wings from companies like Dell and Apple.  Another crucial factor: the cost of netbooks is inching up, bringing their price points preciously close to that those of fully functional notebooks.

“It’s the Internet’s fault for making us much more multimedia savvy,” Stuart Miles, founder and editor of technology blog Pocket Lint, told the BBC. Uploading and editing photos or motion video requires more power than the basic netbook offers, he said.

Read the full blog post at NYTimes.com.

the Asus Eee 701 - the first of its kind, 7-inch screen and all

TGDaily.com has this to say about the matter:

Analyst Opinion – I’m traveling this week and noted that the guy traveling next to me, who owns his own company, is using an Acer netbook. It is his primary travel computer.  He purchased a 12-cell aftermarket battery for it and gets 10 to 12 hours of battery life and, according to him, this is all he needs. Most of the analysts I travel with have noted that the distinction between netbooks and notebooks has largely vanished.

I’m not arguing that this small form factor product is going away; I’m arguing that the netbook distinction is increasingly irrelevant because even the size difference is evaporating. And some new netbooks now outperform the majority of existing notebook computers.

The full article at TGDaily.com.

Most of the doomsayers (here, here, and here) are saying one thing — the convergence and evolution of technology will finally catch up with the netbook. The concept of a NETBOOK was never really new technology, they say. It was a price point. And now that people are needing more and more features from their teeny-tiny netbooks, the size and the materials will keep going up, and unfortunately, so will the price. Add to that pressure the rising technology in smartphones — growing more and more internet and cloud friendly, dipping into the social networking well. Soon we’ll be seeing “smartbooks”. And tablets.

Nokia's Smartbook 3G - the mobile phone giant dipping into a bright future?

Speaking of tablets, all these blogs are also boldly heralding 2010 as the “year of the tablet“. This is mostly due to rumors of Apple launching a tablet-style portable very soon. A blog in NYTimes says this:

Like almost all the people covering technology, I have no doubt that Apple will release a tabletlike device in 2010; there are too many signs that point in this direction. Let’s put all the rumors aside for a moment and look at the facts. There’s the endless chain of patents, as Brad Stone reported in The New York Times in late September on the rehiring of Michael Tchao, who worked on the Apple Newton. I’ve had many discussions with publishers and content creators that sustain my suspicions.

But the icing on the cake comes from a current senior employee inside Apple. When one of my colleagues here asked if the rumors of the Apple tablet were true, and when we could expect such a device, the response from his source was, “I can’t really say anything, but, let’s just say Steve is extremely happy with the new tablet.”

The full blog post at NYTimes.com.

Another one of those Apple Tablet artist renditions

Apparently, Dell and Intel are also working on one. See here at Wired.com:

After years of enticing rumors, ambitious prognostications and flat-out blather, 2010 may finally be the year that the tablet PC evolves from being a niche device to becoming a mainstream portable computer.

The tipping point comes via word to Wired.com from a well-connected industry executive that mainstream heavyweights Dell and Intel are collaborating on a touchscreen tablet due for release next year. Though our source has learned little about specifications of the device, what’s apparent is that the tablet will serve as a subscription-based e-reader for displaying newspapers, magazines and other media, giving Amazon’s Kindle — particularly, the nearly $500 large-format DX model — a run for its money.

The full article at Wired.com.

Our Conclusion

Here at MacPCWiz, we have our own take on this: 1) We are uneasy about casting the netbook aside so quickly. True, we believe the netbook was conceived mostly by economics more than by technology. But we may yet see more innovations on this specific price point – $300-500. We’re looking at netbook manufacturers to give it one last push. 2) It may yet be too soon to proclaim the (still, as of writing) non-existent tablet as king for this year. We do not belittle the marketing power and the business minds behind Apple, and there is no doubt the tablet is gonna be big. We’re looking for major competition here for “king of the hill” title.

And yes, did we mention? We are heck excited about the millions of apps and little accessories that the “tablet age” will be bringing to fore. Netbooks have given external DVD burners and external hard drives to name a few, a lot of airtime this year. We’re hoping you’re as excited as we are.