Will Chromebook Resurrect the Netbook?

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Samsung’s Series 5 and Acer’s Cromia Chromebooks started shipping today and if you got yours already, congratulations. The big question here is whether Google’s launch of the Chrome OS powered notebook will resurrect the concept of lightweight notebooks in the face of the tablet’s popularity.

Asus made a killing with its first wave of netbooks in late 2007. Then, virtually every computer manufacturer followed suit with their own ultraportable line, with the exception of Apple. While ultraportables used to be very expensive, the idea of a sub-notebook at $300 hit it well, especailly with folks in need of a second computer and in developing markets.

However, tablets have risen in prominence, and netbook manufacturers are feeling the crunch amid tablet computers eating into their market share. Some companies are reportedly scaling back on sales forecasts and even dumping old inventory just to clear up their production lines.

With Google Chromebooks within reach, will the concept of a scaled-back notebook computer hit it with the market? Analysts at Gartner say that the market for netbooks has shrunk in the past several quarters. However, Chromebook might just strike that balance between capability and lightweightedness. With being “lightweight” here, we don’t mean the hardware itself, but the system in its entirety. Chromebooks are meant for use with web surfing email and document work while online. You probably won’t expect to do serious number crunching or online gaming with Chromebooks. But they’re perfectly all right for emails, social networking and such.

Netbooks are said to have attempted to do too much with too little, such as by cramming Windows 7 (or sometimes even Vista) into a device with small space and an anemic Atom processor. Will Chromebook be the new “netbook” with its ligthweight OS that doesn’t really promise much apart from a good Web experience?