some of the most coveted laptops out there are also the most lightweight with
plenty of higher-end models weighing 3 lbs or less but did you know that not
long ago a whole category of super lightweight laptops failed miserably
after a few years in the sun they were commonly referred to as netbooks and
they often didn't weigh much more than just 2 lbs or about 1 kilogram although
there was a trademarked product called the Scion Netbook that dates back to
1999 it was quite different from the more recent products that Ed the term
Netbook in more generic way these netbooks showed up on the market Circa
2007 around the time that we were starting to get used to the idea of
computers being internet machines where large numbers of tasks were being done
through a web browser or through the cloud in general remember this is the
same year that the original iPhone came out by which time we already had Google
Docs country specific versions of YouTube and the ability to join Facebook
even if you never went to college seeing as there was now a market for simpler
PCS primarily designed for connecting to the internet and other basic uses like
word processing the netbook seemed poised to fill a seemingly large void in
the computer Market one of the first notable netbooks was the ASUS
eepc 700 which was only about 9 in Long
featured a 7-in screen and had a solid state drive instead of a mechanical hard
drive uncommon for laptops at the time but useful for cutting down on weight
and power consumption instead of Windows the e700 ran a Linux distribution that
emphasized ease of use and low resource requirements so while they wasn't much
appeal for power users its low $399
price tag made it a hit for folks who didn't need a laptop with Advanced
features they didn't have much use for the success of the EPC started a trend
other computer manufacturers started pumping out their own netbooks into the
market and ASUS released a huge number of other EPC models some of which
featured Windows instead of Linux part of this growth was buoyed by Intel's
2008 launch of their Atom Processor line which used very low voltages suitable
for netbooks but if netbooks were so popular relatively recently why have
they basically banished today we'll tell you right after we thank delete me for
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though the availability of Windows surely attracted users who otherwise may
not have considered a Netbook Windows actually contributed to the netbooks
downfall you see although Microsoft didn't want to seeed the netbook space
to Linux they also wanted to make sure people weren't buying cheap netbooks
instead of a more powerful Windows device if they could afford it so
netbooks often shipped with stripped down versions of Windows that Microsoft
would only provide to Netbook manufacturers if their machines fell
below certain specifications for a long
time Microsoft wouldn't license Windows to run on netbooks with more than 1 GB
of RAM although netbooks eventually accounted for about 20% of the laptop
Market at their Zenith in 2010 the problem for the netbook was that
competing Technologies were cashing up although their small size and low price
point made netbooks convenient they were at the end of the day underpowered
devices running stripped down software that you had to operate using a very
cramped keyboard 2010 was the year that both the iPhone 4 and the original iPad
were released and the public quickly got used to the idea that sleer devices like
tablets and even some smartphones could replicate the functions of a netbook and
perform them better especially as Netbook manufacturers were often trying
to compete on price meaning they weren't exactly the best quality a lot of the
time at the same time mainstream laptops were getting cheaper
and lighter for example the 2012 Acer V5
had a full-on core i5 and only weighed about 3 lb but could be found for less
than 500 bucks the availability of laptops like these meant the netbook was
getting squeezed from two directions until it didn't really have a role to
fill in the marketplace anymore by 2013 manufacturers had essentially ceased
Netbook production meaning the netbook didn't even last as long as the band n
sync's original run so it was bye bye
bye all right thanks for watching guys if you like this video hit like hit
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