“For 2009, sales are expected to jump to 35 million, rising to an estimated 139 million in 2013.”
About netbooks. I think it could be the case.
For me the netbook is the beginning of the computer becoming something like a fridge, really useful, really efficient, cheap, with the brand that says nothing except that it is totally useless and irrelevant to know it (almost).
What is interesting is that its development around the world is matching the beginning of services like OnLive or Gaikai. David Perry said in some interview:
“You don’t need to have full screen HD to play a game, you just don’t. It needs to be good, but each game has a set size it’ll work at, and we suggest that they go as small as they can while still having a great experience – because the audience will be exponential. The smaller you go, the bigger the audience.”
Playing on screens like the DS/iPhone or the low res of the Wii which are currently the best selling game devices proves the point. People don’t give as much about overall technical graphical achievement that they do for innovation and gameplay and fantasy (which I will discuss later). So if the server side game service is working as in this demo (and this is where Prism or others are gonna be useful):
Well people running little computers with gigabit ethernet or wifi n are gonna be happy. They are legion.