Netbooks, those super-small but just capable-enough laptops, have been around long enough now that their impact can be measured in more than just how many have been released (very many) or how much they have been hyped. While the One-Laptop-Per-Child program that started it all is encountering difficulties at the moment, Education departments the world over have still embraced the mini-laptop concept as the best way of delivering 1:1 laptop rollouts in a cost-effective way.

 Tangible proof of the impact of this new class of PCs is showing up in sales figures - the following Appleinsider article reports on recent US sales data showing that Acer has re-taken the 3rd spot at the expense of Apple, which has fallen a place for the first time in some time. Acer's success is reported as being due to the success of its strong Aspire Netbook line, while Apple has no products at present in this clearly growing category. Apple's Steve Jobs recently opinioned that the iPod Touch and iPhone were its equivalent, but maybe the current harsher economic times will force Apple's hand, making the many Mac-using schools of the world rather happy I imagine.

 Article is HERE:
> http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/01/14/apples_share_of_us_pc_market_sl...