Not surprisingly, the whole demand for PC has spiraled downwards except for netbooks that are seeing an explosion in demand. But this demand comes at a cost for companies such as Intel and Microsoft who would rather sell their expensive products in normal laptops than cheaper variations in netbooks.

In our own netbook coverage, here are some of the items that Netbook Era mentioned this past week:

- Plenty pics of the Aspire One 10″ netbook

- A cute pink MSI Wind U100 netbook that is a good valentine Day gift 

- A more functional version of Jolicloud, the netbook operating system.

As usual, please subscribe to the RSS feed if you have not done so already. See you next week!

- Intel officially launched the Classmate PC

- A seven hour lasting Viliv S7 netbook was announced

- Forrester, through numbers, showed that consumers mostly view netbooks as secondary computers

-  A portable media device manufacturer announced a netbook. Look out for Archos ultraportable notebooks at a store near you

It was a pretty quiet week that was mostly dominated by the Sony netbook and how beautiful but expensive it is. But as the week closed, there were reports of a cheap Sony Vaio netbook meaning that Sony would partake in the race for the small and cheap.

I wrote that Intel should not worry about 12″ netbooks and wondered why TV tuners were becoming popular features in netbooks.

And that’s how week III of 2009 ended up. Thanks for reading and remember to stay tuned by subscribing to the RSS feed. Thanks!

The first bombshell of 2009 was hearing that there would be no Apple netbook as Netbook Era contrary to what hundreds of bloggers and pundits had predicted. It does not mean that Apple has nothing up their sleeves. It just means that it was not for now. 

On the other hand, we got to formally hear all about the Sony netbook aka Sony P-Series Lifestyle PC. Apparently, the Sony people don’t want us calling it a netbook but what do you call a 8″ mini laptop that’s ultra portable, thin and powered by Intel’s Atom? Just because it’s super expensive does not prevent it from being a netbook!

We also got acquainted with HP’s corporate netbook, the HP Mini 2140 which sports a slick aluminum design. Other netbooks announced at CES 2009 are: Samsung NC20, Elonex, Asus Eee 131, Coby, Gdium Liberty, Dell Adamo Mini 10, Velocity NoteMagix M10 , Fujitsu Tokidoki, Commodore, ViewSonic VieBook and many more other netbooks.

CES ’09 was truly all about netbooks and some people even noticed that most journalists used them as reporting tools! 

We also got wind of the news that Windows 7 would also be available in light form for netbooks, an official move by Microsoft to recognize the netbook craze and maybe pre-counter the possible Android attack.

With so many netbooks on the block, Netbook Era came to the conclusion that most would not see the end of 2009 due to intense competition and no real distinguishing features and specifications. We also advised Intel to chill and not worry about the 12″ netbooks threat.

With the tech shows over, 2009 can now be on its way and we can’t wait to see what it will be all about.

The biggest news this week was the fact that Sony is joining the netbook era and its netbook is more a pocketbook called Sony Vaio P Series. In the new year, we will see what it’s all about.

It turns out that at CES 2009, touchscreen netbooks will rule the show. Surprisingly, everyone seems to be off the Apple netbook bandwagon as people see little odds of Apple releasing a MacBook Mini.

Amazon had “the best ever” holiday season at the expense of offline retailers who saw sales declining in these difficult economic times. It probably is no surprise to you that netbooks sold like hot cakes.

Naughty Intel is refusing to play nice with NVdia’s chip that would make netbooks faster and better. Caught in the act, Intel defended itself but we all know what’s really going on: Intel does not want to share the netbook pie with no one!

Intel may get to taste its own medicine in the form of a law suit. Psion, a UK company, is going around sending legal letters to all businesses that use the term netbook, a protected trademark they own according to their C&Ds. I sincerely hope that they will not come after us bloggers they promised.

So end the last weekly digest of 2008. In 2009 the netbook will be mightier than Obama so stay tuned by subscribing to the RSS feed. 

I wish you a great 2009 and may you fare well in these hard times.

Cheeeeerssss…

Rumours of the Apple netbook just got crazier to the extent where everyone is expecting a MacBook Mini netbook in January at MacWorld but wondering why Steve Jobs will not be attending.

Acer may have eaten Asus’ lunch but Asus still had a top gong to its credit as Forbes Asia named the Asus Eee PC netbook, the product of the year. Acer had another trick up its sleeves though: it was announced that the Acer Aspire One would be selling at Walmart. If you’re aware of Walmart’s mammoth distribution channel, you know how big of a coup this is.

Some pundits bet that Linux would take over the whole world but the marketplace decided that after all, it was more comfortable with Windows powered netbooks. See also: Will Netbooks Destroy Microsoft in 2009?

And so, those were the highlights of the past week (14th-21st December 2008). Thanks for reading us, your number one netbook blog!

Happy holidays!

Speaking of Acer, it was announced that they would release a new Gateway LT1001G netbook. Just in case you did not know, Acer bought out Gateway last year and so it’s normal that the Gateway LT1001G netbook has a striking resemblance to the Acer Aspire one netbooks.

A new way to get your hands on the Acer Aspire one mini laptop was unveiled. The deal is that you could get the ultraportable notebook for $99 but there was a catch. The deal, that is a Radio Shack offer, may actually not be that much of a bad idea (See: Why The Radioshack 3G Acer Aspire One Netbook Deal Almost Sucks).

An interesting netbook bag by Voltaic that also recharges your mini notebook was mentioned while we also heard of Jolicloud, a netbook operating system from Netvibes’ founder. The race for netbook operating systems is on and it’s no wonder that it was reported that Google’s Android could be seen in netbooks.

The Android operating system is usually found in smartphones but netbooks sell more than the iPhone according to figures that were released. Maybe that’s why Google is so interested in mini portable PCs. Netbook Era was rather annoyed at those “netbooks vs iPhone” reports because they were comparing two unrelated things.

The New York Times wrote a handy guide to SSD and how they relate to netbooks. One of the things they do is improve battery life. But it seems that an  Asus Eee PC 901 netbook  powered by a 10-cell battery was another way to extend battery life.

Naturally, a few predictions were made notably the fact that netbooks were going corporate in 2009 and that the future of these ultraportable notebooks was in 10″ models as the smaller sizes are just too impractical with their tiny screens and keyboards.

Quite a few netbook reviews were documented: Zepto A12, MSI Wind U100-483JP, Asus N10Jc-A1, Fujitsu Amilo Mini Ui 3520, ASUS N10J, Gigabyte M192 and the  Averatec 1000 netbooks.

Also, quite a few new netbooks or wannabe netbooks were written about: Alpha 400 MIPS, Gateway LT1001G, Axioo PICO DJM 616, Sony VAIO VGN-TT15GNR, Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 and the XDA Flint.

More handy guides were written on how to buy the best DJ netbook and about the best netbook ever. 

As usual, the deals were  in full prominence: HP Mini 1000, Acer Aspire One, LG X110, Lenovo IdeaPad S10, and the Dell Mini 9 netbooks.

And so, those were the highlights of the past week (7th-14th December 2008). Thanks for reading us, your number one netbook blog!