My portable computer is a dinosaur. Being a rather large and cumbersome behemoth of a laptop with a ravenous appetite for electricity and a marred brushed aluminum coating, it’s an ugly, clumsy, power hungry’ computer. And it’s not the most easily portable thing in the world either. Plus, it has the capability to burn the hair off from the tops of my thighs if I rest it on my legs for too long. Damn, those computer processors can get awfully hot. Sometimes I think my computer is possessed by some kind of fire demon or something. Scorched thighs aside, my aluminum rectangle and its ilk had better watch their backs, because a new breed of portable computer is on the rise, making strides with its inherent simplicity and appeal amongst the Generation Y market. Say hello to the newest species in town that’s replacing the dinosaurs: the netbook. If you’re not familiar with the term ‘netbook,’ you’ve surely seen one of these microcomputers in some place or another over the past couple of years. Basically, they’re really tiny laptop computers. Netbooks are trimmed-down portable computers designed specifically for low-intensity computing tasks such as Web surfing, wireless’ communication and word processing. They’re slim, sexy, power-efficient machines with tiny (yet equally sexy) screens and cases designed for maximum portability and power efficiency. Essentially, netbooks are ideal for on-the-go people and businessmen and women who need internet access frequently. I think college students fall within this category, too. That’s probably why I see so many kids around the University campus using them. These computers are popping up all over the place. I think it’s indicative of a growing trend within the consumer electronics industry: people these days want them small. Really small. And if consumers want them, they shall receive. I see the growing netbook trend representing an ideal middle ground between multifunctional cell phones and traditional ‘notebook’ laptop computers. Consumers want multifunctionality in their electronic devices, and netbooks can satisfy demand for such a device very well. With a netbook, one can surf the internet, listen to music, use Skype to call other people, communicate via instant messaging and e-mail, read e-books, play games and a multitude of other things. That’s a killer app right there, if you ask me. It’s probably why I see my existing computer as being so big and bulky. It lacks the superior portability of a netbook. As Wi-Fi hotspots continue to pop up all over the world, and while internet-savvy consumers continue to display increasing demand for efficiency, portability and convenience in the ways they communicate, I can only see netbooks becoming more prevalent as time goes on. Funny thing is, we’re seeing the exact opposite happen within the cell phone industry. Consumers don’t want their cell phones to be smaller anymore: they want them bigger. Ever since the text messaging phenomenon took over a few years ago, cell phones have been redesigned with full QWERTY keyboards and wider screens so people can more efficiently send text messages to each other and browse the webernets with ease. Funny – shortly before this started to happen, everyone was cracking jokes about how much smaller cell phones were going to become. Now they’re getting huge. Sacrificing some portability for additional features has made its permanent mark on the cell phone market, but despite this march toward larger cell phones, I see this trend as being directly related to the shrinking size of portable computers. Think about it: traditional laptops are too cumbersome and large to carry around everywhere, and smaller cellphones are limited in their functionality. So, by having our laptops shrunk into netbooks and by increasing the size of our cell phones to be more practical for texting, we’re steadily marching toward an all-in-one wonder somewhere between a small computer and a big cell phone. I’m just throwing around ideas, of course. But these netbooks are popping up all over the place recently, and it represents changes in the way we communicate and share information with each other. In the information age, portability is king. Expect to see more netbooks in the future.