Who killed the netbook?

June 22, 2011, 9:46 PM — The netbook has been murdered. The concept of an inexpensive computing device with high value for the third world has been sufficiently co-opted so as to make the category meaningless. Some called netbooks a sub-category of "ultra-light" or "sub-notebooks", but netbooks became legitimized by the announcement of the $100 OLPC laptop.

Lots of people wanted to see the original concept of a $100 laptop work. However, hardware and operating systems vendors saw no financial opportunity in that concept. Therefore, netbooks died the death of a thousand cuts, and netbooks as a conceptual computing category have been nearly wiped out. The netbook made the industry take a serious look at value. What has transpired reflects that. We have more lightweight computing platform choices than ever before. The netbook's brief success was also its swan song.

For a seeming few brief moments, netbooks caused the tech industry to quake: astoundingly inexpensive alternatives to comparatively bloated and expensive personal systems —laptops, desktops and notebooks— that could be affordable even and especially in the third world.

Conventional wisdom: A $100 computer can't be any good. Can it?

In late 2005, the only computer found for $100 was stolen, dead, or ancient enough to require Windows 95. A real and functional computer for a $100 was a dream, but also made people wonder what sacrifices might need to be made to offer such a comparatively inexpensive machine.

Value upended

The sub-notebook category had a number of expensive members in 2005. There was Sony's PCG-1CX, which in 2000, featured 64K of memory, Windows 98, and a 16x9 aspect ratio screen with a whopping 4GB disk drive. Linus Torvalds, inventor of the Linux kernels used one. Toshiba had its Librettos, and the Psion had a comparatively tiny form factor. At some point, these ultra-lights had a built-in Ethernet connection, and became netbooks.

The redefinition of the netbook was the progeny of the MIT Media Lab's Nicolas Negroponte. Negroponte, along with the UN's Kofi Anan, announced a system to be called the One Laptop Per Child, or OLPC in late 2005. Their goal was simple: a $100 highly functional laptop—computing affordable by all. The specifications were designed to help bring computing to the third world, where $100 at the time was a big number. Netbooks were soon envisioned to follow along the feature set of the OLPC.

That's when all hell broke loose.

The announcement shocked the tech industry. In late 2005, the only computer found for $100 was stolen, was dead, or was ancient enough to require Windows 95. A real and functional computer for a $100 was a dream, but also made people wonder what sacrifices might need to be made to offer such a comparatively inexpensive machine. The big differentiators at the time were CPU details, storage capacity, added software, and display characteristics.

Intel and AMD in late 2005 were nearing the point where 64-bit CPUs were taking hold. The CPU industry was at a cusp, as processor speed of 32-bit CPUs coupled to their power consumption were differentiators; dual-core 64-bit CPUs were two years in the future. Apple was using IBM's PowerPC chip.

Microsoft's Windows XP, long in the tooth in 2005, dominated desktop and laptop computers. Microsoft's disastrous Vista operating system would be ready in 2006. Apple's MacOS X was merrily running on PowerPC G4 processors. Intel's Atom hadn't arrived. ARM processors were just starting to get traction in mobile devices.

But the laptop industry's big problems in terms of value had to do with speed versus quality of display (and storage) versus battery life. Machine weight was becoming bloated as large laptop display sizes and the desktop-replacement version of laptops emerged. Mobility was popular, but proprietary batteries with short lives and warranties for batteries from some vendors of just 90 days set the stage for a re-think. Netbooks for $100 provided just that.

The OLPC DNA was set as "The Children's Computer", initially designed to use the Linux operating system, whose use on desktop and notebook machines hadn't been very popular—but the cost of Linux and free/open source software kept the cost low. Later, after much fighting, Microsoft's Windows XP would be offered for just $3 on OLPC machines as an option alongside the Fedora distribution of Linux.