Back in 2007, Taiwanese manufacturer ASUSTek revealed its first ever Eee PC product, the Eee PC 4G, which was then released in October, same year. Initially marketed as a small-sized, low-power and low-cost portable computer system specifically designed for browsing the Internet, the Eee PC has slowly but surely strayed from its purpose. The new series of Eee PCs have aroused the interest of many and have set the stage for a new computer systems market, that of netbooks. And, today, netbooks have finally taken over normal-sized, fully-fledged notebooks, in terms of popularity and sold units.

 

Now, if you don't trust us, take a look at the “Bestsellers in Computers and PC Hardware” webpage from Amazon.com. You will see there how 9 out of 10 products are nothing else than your basic 9 or 10-inch netbooks. Moreover, 8 of them are based on Intel's highly successful Atom processor, which also goes to tell you a few things as to why Intel's hasn't been all that affected by the slow global economy.

 

The only remaining fully-fledged notebook is not even a PC but a MacBook, which has succeeded to claim only the number 6 spot in the list. Nevertheless, with a price tag that is more than double that of netbook (the 10-inch MSI Wind, with 80GB hard drive and a 6-cell battery), Apple's MacBook could soon lose that spot and spiral down the top ten. On top of that, a number of rumors have been recently making the rounds on the Internet, saying that the Cupertino, California-based Apple is considering an Atom-powered device, although there are no direct indications of that being a netbook-like system.

 

So, which are the big winners here? Well, Acer and Intel, obviously. Acer for having succeeded in creating a 9-inch netbook that has not only beaten ASUS' vast lineup of Eee PCs, but also in delivering a netbook that offers the best price/performance ratio. Intel is also a winner because most of these netbooks that are currently available on the market are powered by the company's Atom N270 CPU.

 

We can only assume that netbooks will continue to grow in popularity and that, sometime before the end of this year, they will manage to set a sales record, close to that of fully-fledged notebooks. If you already own one of these netbooks, we invite you to share your opinion on your experience with it, on our new and improved discussion board.