People love miniature versions of the real thing, and now there has been a boom in portable technology. Think back to some of the first instances of portable technology. One of the first was the CD player. When these first were introduced, no one wanted to listen to CDs at home, anymore. What about popcorn chicken, or Pop Tarts, or iPods? These are all examples of things humans changed to take them on the go.
And introducing, the mini notebook — an even more portable version of a laptop (sometimes called a “netbook), just when you thought they couldn’t get any smaller. These new notebooks are breaking new ground in high speed technology on such low-cost/small-sized devices, and are more useful for their wireless internet sides rather than program capabilities.
The Network Computer In the 1990s, Oracle developed a desktop computer which relied solely on programming. It had no external drives or disk inputs whatsoever. They called it the Network Computer. This was the predecessor for the netbook. Unfortunately, this idea was much too ahead of its time being that Internet speeds only ran at 28.8 kb/s. Its slow speed made the Network Computer seemingly useless and therefore it was eventually scrapped.
One Laptop Per Child Then, in 2005, the One Laptop Per Child organization was founded. Their goal was to create an affordable device to educate children in developing countries. With funding from major corporations, they were able to create the XO-1 laptop by Christmas, 2007. The lightweight device was made to be durable and have a long battery life, and ended up with a price tag of 188 dollars, when purchased by thousand units. The creation of the XO-1 solidified the mini notebook as a real-deal device, and more netbooks followed in its footsteps.
Eee PC Shortly after, ASUS created the standard in mini notebooks. It was called the Eee PC. It only weighed about 2 pounds with a 10 inch screen. Shortly after, companies like Dell, MSI, and HP all created their own mini notebooks and by the end of 2008, they were becoming so popular that they took money away from normal laptop sales.
Though this craze is just beginning, we know that laptops will simply get smaller and smaller. And since we live on the cutting edge of technology, we know they will get faster. There is much more to come.
Tags: Computers, computers and technology, laptops, mini notebook history, mini notebooks, netbook history, netbooks, technology, the history of mini notebooks, the history of netbooks
