Dev411 Blog

Ajay and I have recently been discussing the coming of netbooks. While we generally agreed on the impending success of coming intermediate sized form-factor devices, there was initially some debate about what qualifies as a netbook. I was happy to agree that netbooks were the future, especially since I wanted to classify the iPhone, iTouch, and other smart phones as netbooks. Ajay was more interested in MIDs and recently pointed me to this article iPhone, iPod Touch Aren't Netbooks. I think there are generally three types of devices that get included in netbook discussions:

• mini-laptops: these are what I traditionally associated with the term netbook
• MIDs: larger than phone-sized tablets for watching movies and surfing the web
• smartphones: iPhone, gPhone, Palm Pre, etc.

I'm not convinced MIDs will take off the way some people seem to think they will. The larger form factor of MIDs means that they will be inconvenient to carry around which is the primary downside in my opinion. Anything which cannot be carried in a pocket will require a murse, or man purse, for men and that is a huge impediment to adoption. There are just so many people willing to carry a murse. Additionally, many women don't carry large purses.

Ajay and I agreed the PSP may be an ideal compromise in size. I like the large screen and the ability to fit in jacket pockets. I've watched some movies on the PSP and the screen is a joy. The primary downside of the PSP is the unusual encoding and MemoryStick form factor IMO. The iPhone/iTouch has the same issue with MP4 videos. After all, who really wants to re-encode all their video? The Palm Pre seems to support AVIs so I'm eager to learn more about it. Ideally you could have a device that would have the following:

1. pocket size
2. great screen
3. great wifi
4. great phone
5. great DACs
6. MP3 support
7. MP4 / iTunes support
8. AVI support
9. FLAC support
10. 32+ GB SD card support

This way I wouldn't have to have an iPhone, a mobile phone, a Cowon, etc. It remains to be seen who will offer such a device but I'm hopeful one or more are coming.

But as to the question of whether an iPhone is a netbook or not? My take is that if a MID is a netbook then an iPhone is clearly a netbook as they both provide the same functionality in terms of small screen, video, surfing, and lack of a real keyboard to allow fast data entry and real work. Bring on the netbooks I say.