THE NETBOOK WAVE
Most netbooks are too big to be called ultraportable but are usually the first thing people mention when asked about tiny computers.
While numerous products could claim to be the first netbook, the Asus Eee PC in 2007 kickstarted the category. The Eee PC was nine inches wide, with a 7-inch display and a decent keyboard. Costs and power consumption were cut by removing optical drives, and early models shipped with a custom version of Xandros Linux and a 4GB SSD.
Response to the Eee PC was overwhelming, spawning many rivals, but most netbooks from this point shipped with standard mechanical hard drives and Windows XP. Most grew in size to between 10 and 14-inches.
Netbooks were most popular with students: they fit easily into a backpack and could be typed on well enough for assignments.
Netbooks stole a sizeable market share from both laptops and pocket computers and were popular for several years. However, most had awful Intel Atom processors, which were incapable of running Vista or Windows 7.
While netbooks are still available, their market share has been lost to Chromebooks and tablets.