HP strikes chord with Mini-Note PC | Tech news blog - CNET News.com

Am I missing something with these new sub-compact notebooks? I don’t understand what the interest is. Why would I want an underpowered notebook with a tiny screen and a keyboard that is too small to type effectively?

These mini/micro/nano lappies seem to be all the rage, and just 6 months ago people were making fun of them. Palm was planning to put out a sub-compact notebook that was met with jeers and heckling from the kids on the backrow of the internets. Palm scrapped the idea only to see a number of companies, not the least of which HP release similarly underpowered and undersized convolutions.

I know Palm had lost its way in the preceding few months failing to release an OS update for its phones and probably should have refocused on its core competency, but that doesn’t account for the tech world’s change of heart towards the tiny notebooks.

After Palm pulled its name out of the race, the OLPC laptop came out which seemed to capture the imagination a little. I can understand that. If you buy one of these green uglies, a deserving tyke in the third world will be able to brush up on his Quake SimCity skills on the second OLPC that you purchased.

The OLPC had barely had its opportunity to underwhelm when Asus released the first version of the Eee PC. The Eee gained quite a following and my befuddlement started to grow.

I don’t understand it. I must be getting old and cranky ’cause I just don’t understand these crazy kids and their laptops. GET OFF MY LAWN!

If you are seeing something that I am missing, let me know what the big deal is!