Netbooks are all the rage these days and Intel has no doubt become the de facto standard engine powering most of them. Considering the success of its Atom processor, one would think that the company is enthusiastic about this rapidly growing market, but apparently Intel is re-evaluating the whole netbook thing and has recently stated that these machines are not good for extended usage.
The company says that they first thought netbooks would be for emerging markets, but as it turns out, they are particularly popular in Europe and the United States among people who just want to grab and go with a notebook. This of course has the companies behind these low-cost devices worried as they are beginning to into traditional notebook sales and ultimately their bottom lines.
The company's comments also partially echoes AMD's take on the subject that the low cost and small form factor comes at the expense of the users' computing experience - some of you might agree with that perception. Despite this, AMD does plan low-power chips for ultra portables and larger netbooks.
In the end, the netbook form factor will likely morph into something more akin to entry level notebooks, compromising a bit on the portability side but vastly improving their usefulness when working on them for longer periods. Case in point: the new Dell Inspiron Mini 12.