Microsoft Explains Netbook vs Small Notebook PC

During Computex, we heard that Microsoft is starting to refer to netbooks as "small notebook PCs."lol alrigh That’s fair enough, considering that is essentially what netbooks are today.

Still, with the rest of the industry and consumers referring to “small notebooks PCs” as netbooks, and Intel having faught for the freedom of the term itself, we were curious to find out just what Microsoft is thinking.

We got the chance to talk to Ben Rudolph, senior PR manager of Windows Client, regarding the shift in terminology.

It turns out that Microsoft is referring to the netbook segment as small notebook PCs because of the growing capability of today’s machines. The original netbooks, mostly the Asus Eee PCs, were small 7-inch devices with Linux that did little more than net-centric tasks such as browsing, email and chat.

“The term small notebook PCs makes the category more appealing,” said Rudolph, adding that the machines are more capable than ever.

With the Nvidia Ion chipset coming this summer and Intel’s Pine Trail CPU hitting this fall, small notebook PCs will be more powerful than ever. For this reason, Microsoft believes that netbooks are actually evolving to become closer to the capabilities of notebooks.

“The category is an evolution… they’re really becoming more powerful,” added Rudolph. “[The terminology shift] is indicative in where the technology is going.”