Technology Quarterly | Rational consumer
Small is beautiful
Computing: Netbooks are small computers that are cheaper and lighter than full-scale laptops. They have their merits—but do not ask too much of them
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STEVE JOBS says Apple does not know how to make a $500 computer “that's not a piece of junk”. Yet this article was written on a small computer that costs less than that—and barely a quarter of the price of the Apple iMac that sits on the desk beside it. Small, cheap mini-notebooks like this, or “netbooks” as they have come to be called, are not as fast or as capable as a big computer like an iMac, and in performance terms they trail behind most laptops. But they are certainly not junk, and for some people they may be the best computers money can buy.
This article appeared in the Technology Quarterly section of the print edition under the headline "Small is beautiful"
From the December 6th 2008 edition
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