We all knew this day was coming. Netbooks had their time in the limelight a few years ago, but that was before Apple
That didn't stop domestic PC makers, including Dell
According to market research firm ABI Research, second-quarter tablet shipments jumped to 13.6 million units, while netbook shipments shrank to 7.3 million. Compare those figures with the first quarter, when 6.4 million tablets and 8.4 million netbooks moved. Netbook sales are plummeting while tablet sales roar forward.
Well, one of the big netbook players has now officially dropped out of the consumer netbook game: Dell. Its line of Inspiron Minis is joining the dodo as an awkward creation not meant for the land of the living. Instead, Dell is now focusing on higher-end thin and powerful laptops, saying "thin and powerful is where it is at for us," as Intel
HP is still selling netbooks, which is surprising considering HP's predisposition for trying to ax its hardware divisions this year.
Netbooks simply don't have a home to call their own anymore. There are tablets creeping up from the low end, like Amazon.com's
I hope netbooks enjoyed their Lindsey Lohan-esque 15 minutes of fame. Unlike Lohan, though, they can't simply bare their assets in now-private Playboy to try to reboot their careers.
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