Product names are often a sign of the times. Take Microsoft’s .NET programming platform for example: Exactly why is the platform called .NET? Why it was born during the Dot Com era, of course. Yep, names of individual products often borrow from other successful products at the same time.
So this PCWorld article about the success of Netbooks at Amazon got me thinking:
The mini-laptops, with 7-inch to 10-inch screens, are popular because they’re about half the size of a normal laptop and much lighter, usually less than 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lbs). They also cost less, but allow people to surf the Internet wirelessly and work on full, if downsized, keyboards.
Wow, this sure sounds like a description of the early Tablet PCs–and for that matter–many of the smallish keyboard-based UMPCs. Kind of makes me wonder, if Tablet PCs would be called something more Netbookish if they were launched today–in order to glide along with the current success of Netbooks.
Hmmm. Let me see. What about NetTablets? Or NetWriters? Or PenBooks? Or NetPens? Or TabletBooks?