I would say that it depends on alot of different criteria. There is a certain craze over them in the wireless telecommunications community; the fact that they are lightweight and super small make it easy for companies like sprint, at&t, and vorizon to put some sim card dohicky thing into the netbook, and sell it with a two year contract. And the reason that it is so apealing to alot of people is that it’s a wireless internet connection all the time, anywhere you can get a cellphone signal.
Now here is the bone I had to pick with the notion that it is absolutely nessisary to have a wireless contract for these things: the fact of the matter is, if you’re a traveler and want the internet in a public place, then you can actually find wireless network connections either for a small fee or more often for free in places like the airport, cofe shops, donut shops, and even in a McDonalds. If it is that important to have internet(and I guess it is) then you can get it in any of those places, especially if you travel on business.
But I would say that there is one potential exception to this rule, and that would be truck drivers. They are out on the open road, and don’t often have access to the aformentioned establishments, and therefore need some sort of wireless plan.
But to cut to the chase, the point I’m trying to make is, be sure you know what your doing before you lock yourself into a two year deal with a company who’s only goal is to take your money. It’s not that expensive to just go out and buy yourself a nice netbook, and just use if for school, business travel, or if it suits you, as your main PC. These things work great on there own, and come with lots of the same amenities that a normal laptop does, even considering the smaller size.
Some important pieces of info to point out would be that first, these things don’t have disc drives. Nope, no cd, no dvd no nothin’. But you can hook it up to an external dvd drive with one of it’s usb ports. The other thing many may find is that a good chunk of the netbooks on the market have lackluster battery life, though that’s not to say they won’t fix those problems in the future. And finally, the size of the keyboard may just turn a few people off of the netbook category of computer for good. But all things considered, these little things are certainly filling a niche among business travelers, students, and those with a limited budget.
