Smartphones and Tablets Could Doom Netbooks

January 7th, 2010

Above is the headline in a tiny article in today’s New York Times.

I reference it because it states what I believe to be true: “Stuck between the still-evolving smartphone and the emerging tablet computer, the netbook computer would seem to be doomed.”

It’s not so much that I necesarily feel that the NetBook is doomed, but I am certain that the evolution in portable computing devices is increasing at a very rapid pace.

There have been a slew of announcements of new eBook-type devices this week at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. And a slew of other tablets, and other types of non-traditional portable computing devices. When I first heard the iPhone called “a portable computer” I thought it was hyperbole. Now that I use one, I see that it is true. But changes to the form factor are still required, and those changes are imminent.

By the end of 2010 our notion of a portable computing devices will have changed drastically.

Stay tuned.