For a time, netbooks were everywhere. They emerged around 2007 at a time when laptops were becoming more common and were marketed as cheaper, smaller, and lighter alternatives to desktop personal computers. Netbooks, as their name indicates, were primarily made for accessing the internet and became popular for their portability. However, their era didn’t last long. At the start of 2013, manufacturers Acer and Asus stopped making netbooks, effectively ending the laptop subcategory and making netbooks one of those tech fads that vanished.
There were a variety of factors that contributed to the downfall of netbooks, but the main one was the rise of smartphones and tablets. Netbooks were at their peak in the early days of the iPhone and as Apple was introducing the iPad. As these devices became more popular, netbooks weren’t powerful enough to compete while also being small and uncomfortable to use.
Portability and price were the main priority, resulting in small machines you could buy for around $400 or below that were underpowered, even for the time. In a 2009 report, Intel determined that netbooks were best as secondary devices and couldn’t replace laptops or PCs in terms of performance. Many netbooks had 1.66-gigahertz Atom N450 processors or similar and just a gigabyte of RAM, meaning they could do little other than browse the web. Compare that to an iPhone, which could do a lot of what a netbook could while also being a pocket-sized mobile phone. Beyond all that, netbooks became obsolete because the distinction between them and notebooks became blurred to the point that having both on the market became unnecessary.
Netbooks were replaced by notebooks and tablets
Like netbooks, notebooks are small laptops built to be carried around. Both were viewed as basic alternatives to more expensive laptops while delivering enough power for the average user of the time at a price point of hundreds of dollars, sometimes nudging over $1,000. Notebooks were larger and more expensive, but as netbooks improved, the differences between the machines and their production costs narrowed.
Another difference was the operating system. Many netbooks used Linux, but what really helped netbooks take off was Windows XP and the failure of Windows Vista. Windows Vista was notorious for being slow and causing compatibility issues, among other problems. That netbooks were offering Windows XP after other laptops and desktops had stopped made them appealing to those who wanted to keep using the old OS. However, it also made the devices obsolete faster, as those on Vista could get a free upgrade to Windows 7.
Notebooks were more powerful than netbooks, had access to a better (more modern) operating system, and were more comfortable to use thanks to their slightly larger size. However, the real nail in the netbook’s coffin was the iPad. Tablets of the time couldn’t really compete with laptops in terms of utility — though now it’s sometimes possible to use an iPad as a laptop replacement — but despite being far more expensive, tablets took off as netbook sales fell. Apple’s device inspired competitors like Samsung, HP, and Dell to develop their own Android-powered tablets, moving on from the netbook market before holdouts Acer and Asus abandoned it, too. Today, notebooks remain as a cheaper type of laptop that can handle the basics, though not much else … just like the netbook used to do.
