The rise of the notbook, the fall of the netbook
Context & Ripple Effects
The netbook's arc was fast: Slate was already asking what the craze said about laptops in December 2008, Technology Review spotted a 'new breed' forming in April 2009, and by August 2009 the machines had reached a fifth of all portable PC shipments (netbooks hit a fifth of portable shipments). By that December, Computerworld was running the eulogy-in-advance: 'Hello, tablets. Good-bye, netbooks!' (Hello, tablets. Good-bye, netbooks!).
Engadget's 'notbook' framing in January 2011 is the midpoint of that story — the category isn't dying outright so much as losing its definition, as vendors blur the line between underpowered notebook, oversized phone, and tablet. It matters because the netbook had been the PC industry's only growth engine during the recession; whatever replaces it decides who owns the next volume tier of portable computing.
First-order effects
- PC makers whose volume plans leaned on netbooks now face their own product cannibalizing itself, as buyers weighing a $400 netbook against a similarly priced tablet pick the device built for consumption rather than compromise.
- The 'notbook' label gives vendors permission to ship awkward hybrids — touchscreens bolted onto small notebooks — without admitting the dedicated netbook SKU is unsellable.
Second-order effects
- Component suppliers tuned to the netbook bill of materials — small, cheap screens and low-power x86 parts — see demand shift toward ARM-based tablets and larger notebook panels, squeezing the exact silicon roadmap Intel built around Atom.
- Carriers and retailers gain a second subsidy story: where netbooks were sold cheap and unlocked, the successor devices arrive with mobile-data contracts, changing who captures the margin on each unit.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, portable computing splits structurally between appliance-like consumption devices and traditional productivity laptops, erasing the mid-tier where the netbook lived — a consolidation the later retrospectives treat as the defining outcome of the era.
- The episode feeds a broader 'fashionized computing' logic, in which purchase decisions follow desirability and ecosystem rather than specs per dollar, weakening the spec-sheet competition that made the netbook craze possible.
The trend: The netbook's fall is one data point in the shift from cheap general-purpose portables toward appliance-style, media-first devices — with tablets and hybrids absorbing the volume tier the netbook created.