Around a year ago, Asus created the soon to be dubbed “netbook” market with its diminutive Eee PC.  The Eee was a surprise hit and spawned many imitators.  Pretty soon, it seemed like everyone and their mother had a subnotebook device in their product pipeline.  Some of those products have been hits, while others have been misses.  With all these new models from the likes of HP, MSI, Acer and soon to be joined by Dell and Lenovo, is there really a market for all these devices?  Or is this just a flash in the pan like so many other attempts at watered-down technology?  (Internet appliances, anyone?)  Read on after the jump.

First off, I think the idea of a netbook makes perfect sense.  Recently, there have been many instances when I had wished that instead of my laptop, I had something lighter and more portable to carry around or when I decided not to take my laptop with me and then felt the need for a computer to do some basic work on.  Evan has one of the original Asus Eee PC’s and if you ask him, his Eee fills a cozy niche in his life, allowing him to have a computer with him at almost all times without being weighed down by a full-size laptop.  Given the low price of a netbook, it makes a lot of sense for students or busy people in the workforce.

That however brings up the biggest problem with the current crop of netbooks on the market.  Many of the more desirable models price themselves out of a lot of consumers’ comfort zones.  The Asus Eee 901 with Windows XP costs $600.  The 10″ Eee’s are even more expensive.  The HP Mini-Note 2133 starts at $500 for a stripped down model with Linux.  Even the MSI Wind with its 10″ screen and Windows XP is $500.  At these prices, the little netbooks are putting themselves into competition with more capable, full-size notebooks complete with bigger screens, optical drives, and full-sized keyboards.

Still, netbooks still have some advantages over bargain basement, full-size notebooks.  The new Intel Atom processors used by most of the netbooks delivers good enough performance while drawing very little power.  The portability of the netbook cannot be overlooked since the whole  purpose of the netbook is to provide you with just enough computing computing to satisfy you most of the time.  Consumers looking for a lightweight, secondary computer will not consider something like a Dell Vostro 1000.

I really want to see the netbook category succeed.  But to do so, I believe that prices need to come down so that it will be much easier for consumers to impulsively buy a netbook because it may be useful to them.  The Acer Aspire One is a step in the right direction with its 8.9″ screen and Windows XP for $400.  Look for the upcoming Lenovo IdeaPad S10 and rumored Dell Inspiron Mini to also push the pricepoint of these machines downwards.

When the Eee PC was first announced, Asus promised to sell it for a base price of $200.  They did not hit that, as the first Eee PC’s sold for $400.  Though there is a $300 Eee PC available, it is too stripped down to be very useful to many people.  If netbook prices can come down to $200 for a 8.9″ model with Linux, and marginally more for Windows, then I think this category will really take off.  It is also at that point that I will probably buy one for myself.

In the meantime, I think the best options in the netbook niche are the Acer Aspire One for 8.9″ models and Lenovo IdeaPad S10 for 10″ models.  But as with everything in technology, that could change as soon as tomorrow.

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