http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9027705&type=product&id=1218010174398

I think they want to reduce the rate of returns, by the magic of lowered expectations.

It’s funny reading that description – when I go back to 2004 I heard the same sales pitch from the guys selling me the pocket PC phones.

And when I think of all the things you can do with a good old HTC TyTN II, in addition to having it always with you on your belt and not having to sit at a table to use it, there’s not much else a netbook really has to offer that you cannot get away with on a pocket PC.

That’s also partly where I would say the disagreement comes in. A fully-loaded netbook like the mininote will beat the pants off an iPhone or any pocket PC when it comes to doing regular PC tasks, especially ones that involve the use of a mouse/keyboard.

When you can run standard desktop PC software on an 8.9″ mobile device, and you realize that the ugly beige box sitting on your desk has become redundant, you suddenly begin to see things in a whole new world.

Perhaps they *should* call them “Notbooks” instead, then. ;)

I believe their definition is wrong. Some of those Netbooks have more features and functionality than laptops of even a couple years ago. The only thing Best Buy is concerned about is their profits from higher end laptop sales. If they can scare off the ignorant with their “it may LOOK like a laptop…” spiel, then likely the average consumer will step up (and spend more money.)

It may look like a laptop, it may perform like a laptop, it may have the same OS as a laptop, but it’s not a laptop. We swear.

Well I use my laptop to edit HD movies, play video games, manage my music collection- If I tried that on my u810 it would be a joke.. you need to draw the line somewhere- best buy needs to avoid selling this to someone who thinks it is a full blown notbook with the capabilities most people expect.

Early Eee PCs or some lower res/ Linux based netbooks might not be able to replace regular laptops, but Eee PC 1000h or MSI Wind which BestBuy is selling is every bit capable of replacing regular laptops. Like it or not, retailers will see rising of netbook sales at the expense of laptop sales.

When I was on a business conference last week I took my Eee PC with me most of the day and used it for about 90-95 percent of what I would have done if I had my regular laptop in the room. I took the regular laptop too, but for about 90 percent of the day I was on the Eee and did E-mail, note taking with Evernote (which runs fine on Wine) and watching video and even remoting into work. It’s every bit a full computer. With that said, I semi agree with Best Buy’s description because you would not want to use it to actually write software with unless it was just a script or something that wasn’t very intensive. I tried firing up the Android Emulator on it and it was VERY slow and very unusable.

That is too funny. Today at Starbucks I did everything with my 6-cell MSI Wind that I would have done with any other laptop has “the full capabilities of a computer” like working in MS Word and compiling eBooks. Geez, advertising like that isn’t going to help netbooks go mainstream.

Bill