Netbooks may have had their day already, now that 2009 is all but over. They were all the rage this year but the coming year might not be so kind to them. In fact, it may all but kill them.
That is because the golden age of mobile computing is only just arriving. As technology continues to shrink more powerful chips and make them consume less power, powerful handheld devices are likely to reach the ubiquity that netbooks currently enjoy. These will be smaller, more portable devices that can do all the things that you want them to.
Crunch spreadsheets, play games, create documents, draw, play music and stay online all the time with a fully featured browser. That is what we want to do when we are on the go. And if you think about it, we already have that in the new-age super smartphones. The iPhone, the Droid, the N900, etc. are all phones that are nothing but handheld computers that do all your work within that compact form factor.
Let’s face it — you would not lug around a netbook, small as it may be, if you had the same power in a 4.5 inch device that has a slide out full QWERTY keypad. There are already a lot of Android running tablet MIDs scheduled for the market for 2010 and together they are going to start posing a serious threat to the netbook.
After all, once the tablets mature through a product cycle or two, they are going to become even more desirable. Because by that time Android will have advanced to great new heights and makers will finally figure out certain usability issues about this new form factor that will inevitably pop up. Also, let’s not forget the fact that we already have a lot of current and under-development technology that can make the experience go from good to great to stellar to mind-blowing.
SSDs are sure to become cheap by the middle of next year. They will provide for lightning fast boot and load times. New touch technologies, like the Sensitive Object project are coming into the foray. There’s also the flexible OLED screen that is paper-thin. And the processors and RAM are improving all the time. Combined with a great platform like the Android or the Chrome OS, the time looks just about right for the tablets to take over.
Let’s not forget Apple. The are most certainly bringing out a tablet next year even though nothing short of a mortal peril would make them admit it right now. Apple is a company that is known to change entire industries in one fell sweep of innovation. And their iTunes store is already the perfect platform for digital content distribution. They are already the largest digital music seller (over 70% of total in the US) – the industry that they saved and brought to the digital age. It is highly likely that they are going to do the same to publishing.
Hence, you will see that more netbook manufacturers making tablet netbooks. Sure tablets have been around for a long time now but these tablets are meant to be used by masses and not just professionals. Even all-in-one manufacturers are putting touchscreens on their displays. It is obvious that unless you are into the whole touch game, you are going to be regarded as going obsolete.
And you know what happens when everything goes touch? You want to throw away your keyboard because all it does is get in the way. Do you know what you get when you take a keyboard out of a touchscreen-equipped netbook? You get a tablet. That is the future.
