Small, cheap notebook computers are rapidly becoming the latest craze, because they are light, portable and incredibly handy to have around. My dentist has just asked me which one to buy, and my friend the driving instructor is already using an Asus Eee PC for roadside surfing via a mobile phone dongle. They're springing up all over.
Taiwan's Asus got the market started a year ago, and more than a dozen suppliers have now piled in. Examples include Acer's Aspire One, Hewlett-Packard's Mini-Note 2133, MSI's Wind/Advent 4211 and Samsung's NC10. Dell has just started shipping the Inspiron Mini 9, and Lenovo, which makes IBM ThinkPads, has one on the way.
So far we have not settled on a name, but they are called subnotebooks, netbooks, mini-books, and liliputers. Intel calls them MIDs (mobile internet devices). Microsoft calls them ULCPCs (ultra low-cost personal computers) and targets them with a cheap version of Windows XP.
We've had subnotebook computers for years, but sales didn't take off. Most were aimed at travelling businessmen or "road warriors" and prices often ranged between £1,500 and £2,500. Unless you really needed portability, you could buy a faster machine with a bigger screen for less.
Netbooks have small keyboards and screens — between 18 and 26cm (seven and 10.2 inches), low-power processors, and may have no conventional drives at all: often they use Flash memory. They are small enough to fit in a manbag or handbag and only cost around £200-£300; they're almost an impulse buy. Gartner researchers reckon about 5m units will be sold this year, increasing to 8m next year. I think those are conservative numbers.
Originally, netbooks were intended for schools, following the model of the OLPC (one laptop per child) project, and the competing Intel Classmate PC design. The Asus Eee PC 700 was launched in the UK by RM, a specialist schools IT supplier, but soon it seemed we all wanted one.
Andee Hsu, European product manager for the Eee PC, says Asus designed the machine for families: "You, me, the kids — everyone can have their own. We were able to reach customers we haven't reached before. Later, we also found out it was very good for business trips, and people were buying them as second PCs.
Easy to use
"We also found that the seven-inch screen was a little too small for senior people, so now we have launched a 10-inch model with a bigger keyboard and a bigger screen," Hsu adds. "Physically it's not much bigger and, as a senior person myself, I've found it far easier to use."
Dell is also targeting its new £299 Inspiron Mini 9 at consumers who want to use it for blogging, emails, watching BBC iPlayer and YouTube videos, and video-chat. Dell's European consumer product manager Adam Griffin says it's not aimed at business users. "There's a clear differentiation between that and a value laptop that has a bigger screen, a lot more power, performance and hard drive space." (Dell's value notebook line, called Vostro, starts at a lower price than the Mini 9 netbook.)
While it may not be a replacement for a full-spec portable, a netbook can still earn its keep. You can use one for email while travelling, where a bigger PC would be unwieldy. You can also browse the web at Wi-Fi hotspots. Although instant messaging, social networking (for example, Facebook) and blogging are seen as consumer applications, more and more businesses are using them.
Online applications
It's true that the Intel Atom — a tiny new processor designed for the MID market — does not have the raw power of a Celeron, Pentium or Core processor for running desktop applications, but many netbook owners use online applications instead. Gmail and Google Docs are obvious choices, but there are plenty more.
Browser-based online applications are particularly important for people who have devices that don't run Windows, whether they're netbooks or mobile phones. Netbooks tend to offer a choice of either Windows XP (the HP 2133 runs Vista) or a variant of Linux. Although Linux has a reputation for being hard to use, netbooks come with simple front ends that make it very easy to run the built-in applications. However, it can be hard for non-geeks to replace or add to these, as I've found.
Usually, the preinstalled Linux applications are free, open-source programs such as the Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email client, and OpenOffice suite. All these are available for Windows, too. However, programs such as Microsoft Office and Apple's iTunes are not available for Linux. If you need to run a particular application, or connect to another device such as a printer or a mobile phone dongle, check this is possible — or there's a substitute — before buying.
Asus started out selling a Linux version of the Eee PC but now also offers Windows XP. Hsu says the initial response was that "Linux is very complicated. Right now, with the second-PC customer, we find they adopt Windows better." It seems people tend to buy what they know.
So, are netbooks good for business? It depends how you work. If you travel around, you might find you can get things done at times and in places where you would otherwise be unable to work. If so, a netbook can pay for itself in days.
In my experience, netbooks are even more useful if you have a mobile broadband connection, not just Wi-Fi. It's no surprise that Vodafone plans to sell Dell Mini 9 netbooks with built-in mobile broadband in Vodafone stores. If you're a "digital nomad", a netbook is more portable than a business notebook PC but more functional than a BlackBerry or similar smartphone. You may find it's just what you need.
