“The end result is that I think these are more likely to be cannibalistic, at least in the early parts of 2009,” he said.
But in the long run, some analysts — Baker included — are skeptical about the netbook category’s life span. Baker believes netbooks could fade out next year, and be replaced by even smaller devices that are also focused on getting their owners on the Internet.
Gartner Inc. analyst Ken Dulaney said the category is “slowly evaporating” and points out that while the bad economy might make netbooks more appealing in the short term, they are unlikely to win over a broad swath of consumers who require bigger keyboards and more powerful performance found in bigger laptops, known as notebooks.
Popularity of tiny ‘netbooks’ set to rise in 2009 - International Herald Tribune
