The netbooks are a smaller, lighter and less powerful version of the notebooks. Their use is to access the web, edit texts and various other simple activities. The price reduction and the other advantages make the netbook an attractive option.

What changed?

      The first netbook appeared in 1993: the Gateway Handbook, a machine of 24.6 cm by 14.9cm, with DOS and monochrome screen. Didn’t have success. Then in 1996, appeared the Toshiba Libretto, even smaller and less successful. Now, the netbooks suddenly reappeared and became mania. What changed?

      The actual netbooks seem to have the right size. That doesn’t mean that other attempts to produce small machines were not in the right direction. Missing something, the Gateway Handbook came close, but perhaps failed because of the obsolete CGA display. When the first Eee PC from Asus appeared, some people thought it was have the same destination... but they were wrong.

      Nobody noticed at that time that a ultra small computer always had something important. So, it make us think about an aspect that makes all the difference in the high tech world: a presence, strong enough to brings the attention and change the whole conception behind a kind of product. Is the “snap”!

      Initially, for example, the smartphones had something strange. They needed just a "snap" to turn something that everyone want, what happened with the iPhone.

      All ideas that seem good on paper and fail in the market has potential to become viable with a “snap”. The good ideas that have been discarded and never were properly executed are a mine to another who is searching. Thus, the netbooks appeared from nowhere, and the iPhone changed the thought of people about the smartphones.

      Revisit old and failed ideas to see what has been ignored is a cheap version of research and development. Think about it... maybe you find something too and... "snap"!