Many analysts have claimed that the netbook market will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. You don’t have to be a genius to figure out why people are spending in netbooks. These gadgets may not be as powerful as fully fledged laptops, but they do offer portability and affordability. Add the current recession that we are in to the mix, and you have yourself a perfect match for people who are not ready to break the bank on a new laptop. Many have complained about netbooks not being powerful enough, but not too many people seem to be talking about laptop manufacturers being able to make a profit. Netbooks are priced low to attract conservative shoppers. These prices have had a negative affect on laptops as well. It’s getting much harder these days to charge $1000+ for a complete laptop (unless you are Apple). For starters, you’d be pricing out a lot of your prospects if you took such an approach. And for that prices, people can buy 3 netbooks for their family. May not be the best decision performance-wise, but it’s certainly a great money-saving move for the family.

If the netbook sales results are any indication, many netbook manufacturers are suffering in these tough times. And no matter how many netbooks they have sold, the fact that netbooks have forced prices to come down has cut into manufacturers’ profits. There is a reason why Apple does not want to be associated with the netbook brand. Apple as a premium brand is not in the business of making pennies when it can make hundreds on each unit sold. And the company had the understanding of how introducing a “cheap” netbook would affect its other products.

We shouldn’t discount the role that the recession has played in all this. People are losing their jobs, and they don’t have money to spend on those expensive laptops. There is no question that notebook manufacturers can earn more money when we are out of the recession. That could take a couple of years, so until then, I’d expect many laptop makers to suffer. Windows 7 may or may not provide some boost to these companies, but I don’t expect things to turn around unless the economy has fully recovered.