Does this mean that the netbook is a short lived idea?

"Rising prices and better alternatives may mean curtains for netbooks.

The small, portable computers were popular in 2009, but some industry watchers are convinced that their popularity is already waning. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8421491.stm

I'll believe it when I see it. The main problem with netbooks is that everyone, except the consumer, loathes the things. Manufacturers hate the things because they have such low margins. Software vendors hate the things because they have such bare-bones needs and generally work best with FOSS. Heck, netbooks forced Microsoft to delay shutting down XP because Vista wouldn't run on them. Retailers hate the things because there is no margins on the sales and they can't load them up with tons of crapware. Who is going to put a $400 copy of MS Office on a $300 netbook? Ever since they came out, there has been a propaganda effort by a lot of the technology media aimed at killing the things and most of those articles beat the same drum as this BBC article. "They're too slow, they don't do everything you need".

Bull. I have yet to see the website that my Mini 9 can't handle. For basic office productivity, it rivals my desktop (which is no shabby beast). Is it slower? Yes, but frequently I'm the slowest part of the equation. What it won't do, is run graphic intensive games.

What might kill netbooks are smartphones. I use my netbook for a lot of the same things some of my friends use their smartphones for. That said, until someone comes up with a way to add a decent keyboard and screen to a smartphone, you won't be able to use the smartphone for productivity. What would be a complete netbook killer would be a netbook sized screen and keyboard combo that you can drop your Droid or iPhone into and have a basic laptop.

A dock like that would be pretty damn cool. I'm aiming to get a Nokia N900 as my next phone (next month hopefully) or an N97 if that's what's available. They both have slide out QWERTY keyboards - a must for me - and they are apparently almost sub-netbooks. Even better is that that N900 is Maemo (Linux) based which should make syncing with my home system a piece of the proverbial.

What surprises me is that someone hasn't done something like this already. Even now, most smartphones have CPU power not far shy of an Atom, so toss in a little extra storage and memory and it should be good to go. So something must be a roadblock. At least here in the US I suspect the degree to which phones are locked down by the wireless carriers has a bit to do with it.