Netbooks, the small footprint computers with a fat profile and low-power performance, are dead. Dell says so, as reported in The Verge. Instead, the future is in “the thin and powerful.” If Dell is out, netbooks are truly dead. This again demonstrates that Apple was ahead of the game in January 2008 when it introduced the first 13in MacBook Air. Thin it certainly was, powerful not so much so.
At the time the MacBook Air was widely derided for being underpowered, lacking in ports and far too expensive. The netbook would was what everyone wanted. Yet the Air line has gone on to become the star. It has has forced the PC industry to develop the ultrabook, a new thin and powerful version of the netbook.