You have to read between the lines when it comes to executives and their corporate speak but NJBiz.com tells the story beautifully.  Basically, a bunch of execs got together at the behest of the Consumer Electronics Association and netbooks were the topic of discussion.  While the comments are subtle they speak volumes.
A Verizon wireless sales director said – “I don’t think it’s a fad.”  

According to TWICE, Toshiba netbooks should start appearing on store shelves available to be pictured, bought, and fondled in a few short weeks.  By the end of June, they’ll be entering the already crowded netbook market.
Since Toshiba couldn’t pay enough to actually innovate, you’ll get the regular netbook features with an Atom chipset, predictable 160GB hard drive, and webcam.
Pricing will be $349, and $399 respectively for their 10.1″ netbooks.

 
Samsung N120 Netbook
 
 
The Washington Post (WaPo) had a chance to take a look at the Samusng N120 netbook, the next iteration of the widely lusted after N110.  Overall they had a lot of great things to say.  They summarize it nicely:
Overall the N120 has nice fit and finish, sporting trim lines and a logical layout that’s very similar to the N110’s. Even with a slightly larger chassis, it doesn’t have much room for a lot of extras. Still, the external ports–VGA-out, three USB ports, and microphone and headphone jacks–give you …

Even though we’re only six month into 2009, there have been some big changes to the netbook space which indicate trends which will like carry through the end of 2009, and into 2010.  While there are many changes, this post will only focus on what appear to be the five most disruptive.
1) Size – When netbooks first came out they were less than nine inches in size.  Larger screens aren’t much more expensive but allow for manufacturers to charge a higher premium.  In so doing, the market for small screen …

Qualcomm didn’t want to get involved with all the discussion with the term “netbook,” so when they wanted to come up with a term to differentiate their platform they used the term “smartbook.”  Whether you call them netbooks or smartbooks Qualcomm is working hard to find new ways to make money.  In the process they’re teaming up with the biggest computer company in the world, Hewlett Packard.  

The point of a netbook is for it to connect to the web….right?
More and more the web is available via Wi-fi, bluetooth, or mobile broadband connections.  With this shift happening faster and faster it just seems to make sense that the day will come when you can no longer plug your netbook into a wired network to get an internet connection.  This may have some impact on the claims companies use when they talk about battery life as connecting to the web wireless requires a lot of power.
Ultimately if doing …

Qualcomm is bringing Snapdragon to "smartbooks"
Qualcomm is a little worried about making money and it has good reason to be concerned.  It has the CDMA market cornered but with Verizon talking about moving to LTE and Sprint moving towards WiMax, they may end up with no one to sell their chips to.
This explains why they’ve come with Snapdragon as a platform for netbooks.  Instead of joining the pissing match with Psion, Qualcomm is calling computers using their chips “smartbooks.”  This will only help to further confuse people who have just …