netbook,netbooks,laptop,notebook,laptop computers,mini notebooksRelatively new computer devices emerging in late 2007, early 2008, netbooks are storming markets with attractive pricing, competing with their laptop and notebook forefathers. Used mainly to surf the web and perform small computer functions, consumers now have the option to have a dulled down laptop that will meet their computing needs at a fraction of the cost.

The netbook philosophy is to utilize the Internet applications such as presentations, spreadsheets, word processing, and even storage, as hard drives have just recently increased up to 250 GB from 160 GB. As these are actually larger hard drives for netbooks, some are even justified to come with solid-state drives that are fast and small, but usually do not exceed 32 GB. Netbooks are not powerhouse machines, but are portals to internet-based applications and products.

As storage space remains predominantly low on netbooks, so does memory and processing speeds. Processors are, on average, at about 1.6 GHz. Additionally, a traditional netbook provides about 1 GB of memory, while 512 MB is not uncommon. After all, these machines are not designed to run much more than an Internet browser, which ultimately keeps cost down.
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