iPad is Blamed for the Eventual Demise of Netbooks

A few years ago, Intel touted netbooks as a stripped-down laptop version that could close the gap between full-fledged laptops and smartphones. But that was when before the tablet craze began. Microsoft Tablet PC was a pioneer in the industry, but today, iPad and Android tablets fill the category.

Now, there seems to be no place for netbooks and they could be heading towards extinction.  Netbooks peaked with about 32 million units sold, but IHS said that the category will be totally extinct. As a comparison, in its last fiscal year alone, Apple shipped almost 60 million units.

Intel allocated plenty of efforts on netbooks and it even planned to use a dedicated OS called Moblin, although in practice, Windows XP and Windows 7 are more likely to be used. Ultrabooks are a new entry in the notebook industry and they are now Intel’s new focus.