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Nettop? Lapbook? What is This Thing?

It’s a bit hard to figure out these days where laptop ends and netbook begins—or vice versa. As “netbook” displays grow, and “laptop” sizes shrink, many are trying to figure out how to class these new devices.

Acer is leading significant forays into the netbook market. Their popularity is due to their innovation and low pricing. In a matter of weeks, Acer will unveil the new Aspire One—a netbook with a new sizing of 11.6 inches. It features a full size keyboard, a thinner body, an Intel processor, 1 gig of memory, 160 gigs of hard drive storage, and all of this at the netbook-sounding price of $560. The new model barks like a laptop but looks like a netbook, and it costs like one, too.

Meanwhile, Eee PC is readying the drum roll for a big-screen version of their netbook. Whereas Asustek Computer was noteworthy for the 7-inch variety of the Eee PC, they will unveil in late May a new product at a whopping 11.6 inches, big enough to compete with the big Aspire One. Asustek Computer enjoys strong sales from the 10” Eee PC, and hopes that the new larger-screened cousin will give sales an extra boost.

Apart from the quandary over whether to call them nettops, lapbooks, or none of the above, a new curiosity forms over how they will affect traditional laptop sales. In a unique turn of events, netbook prices stay relatively unchanged even though netbook power ramps up. How will the change affect laptop pricing or laptop purchasing?

The situation becomes even more interesting, for as the netbooks get bigger, laptops get sleeker. With extra-powerful, super-cool, and amazingly-tiny processors, laptops are losing weight—trying to keep up with the Macbook air, as it were. Somewhere in the middle, a powerful netbook and an ultra-thin laptop will meet, and hopefully by then, we’ll know what to call it.

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