TECHdodo

I wrote a post about how netbooks were good enough for many and that I thought they would be around for awhile. It was inspired by a post at TechCrunch about how they felt netbooks just weren’t good enough. I felt it depended on what “good enough” meant, and that for many, netbooks would meet that criteria. I went on to talk about TechCrunch’s own proposed CrunchPad, a vaguely defined tablet that they wanted to run with no Operating system.

I didn’t really get the Crunchpad. I didn’t see how it could ever succeed, and certainly not for the price they proposed. I have casually followed the progress of the CrunchPad since then and occasionally saw dates announced and then moved and delayed. They appeared to be making progress though, more than I expected. Today, however, they announced the end of the CrunchPad. Also, since that time, netbooks have dropped in price by almost half, making them even more appealing than they were then. I went back and looked for that post of mine today and was quite surprised to see it was written EXACTLY one year ago to the day. I wrote it November 30th, 2008.Netbooks at the time were running at around $400. You can pick one up now for $200 on a good day. I finally broke down and bought one just a week ago. It works very well, better than I expected, and does everything I need it to do. I am even using it to write this post. Here we are a year later, and netbooks are just as popular, if not more so, than they were a year ago, and the CrunchPad has failed to materialize.

It is not a surprise to me.

Also, if you really want a netbook with no keyboard, a tablet like the Crunchpad hoped to be, check out the Archos 9, or the Inkia MID. I thought about getting one, but the $200 netbook seemed to be a much better value.