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Netbooks were initially aimed at the lower end of the computer market. When they first made their appearance during the last months of 2007, they offered computers a heavily scaled down version of the ordinary laptop. While all of them provided web access, they did not have features such as hard drives.

Both screens and keyboards were much smaller than normal laptops. Features were scaled down drastically. They were not initially intended to be used as your primary computing device, but to supplement your other computers. During the past 2 yeas they’ve become ever faster though and the features list of the average netbook now rivals that of entry level laptops.

The affordable price tag of netbooks are already helping to make computers more accessible to communities formerly without computer access. As an example Greece announced during 2009 that they will in future supply netbooks at no cost to all 13-year old school children to encourage computer and Internet usage.

Netbooks originated in the 1990s as the so-called ‘network computers’ – computers that had no hard drives and were primarily intended for network use. A good example of this is the Apple eMate 300 which hit the market during 1997. The concept proved to be less popular with consumers than the manufacturers expected and by 2000 they were withdrawn from the market.

The first true netbook as we understand the concept today was probably the Asus Eee PC which appeared on the shelves during 2007. Asus originally intended to sell the Eee in emerging markets, but it proved surprisingly popular in Europe and America. With a weight of only 0. 9kg, a 7-inch screen and a keyboard that was 15% smaller than that of a normal laptop it could literally fit into your handbag. The use of the Linux operating system kept many people from buying one though.

These mini-laptops proved to be so popular that towards the end of 2008 they were already chipping away at the market share of ordinary laptops. One only has to look at the figures to see exactly how popular they are: During 2008 close to 30 times more netbooks were sold than during 2007 and projected sales for 2009 are 3 times higher than 2008.

In retrospect it’s not hard to grasp why netbooks are so popular. Apart from being small and lightweight, all of them offer web access. They provide the user with the same set of features and computing power than the average desktop of a few short years ago, while costing less than 25% of those desktops. The ever rising availability of applications that run on the web and not on your computer’s hard drive, such as word processors and spreadsheets, also contribute to the popularity of netbooks.

Andrew Johnson is an expert in electronic products. If you would like more information about types of netbooks or are searching for a trusted computer retailer please visit