• BusinessWeek, Wednesday, January 7, 2009 12:46 PM

Netbooks, those lightweight, low-cost, energy-efficient, highly portable laptops designed to handle Web browsing and little else, are all the rage at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, notes BusinessWeek's Olga Kharif, as manufacturers show off a slew of new devices in all shapes, sizes and prices.

The major question, of course, is whether consumer demand will be high enough; according to Forrester Research, about one in five consumers who plan to purchase a new computer in the next year say they will spend less due to current economic conditions. IDC, another researcher, reckons that about 21 million netbooks will ship this year, compared with just 11 million last year.

However, the rise of netbooks could spell trouble for consumer electronics makers' other devices. Laptop PC sales, for example, were weakened this holiday season thanks to higher demand for netbooks. And now that netbooks feature such services as calling, navigation, music and media delivery, they could also cut into the markets for smartphones, GPS devices, even digital music players, Kharif says. Netbooks are definitely getting smaller, cheaper and harder to define by appearance alone. Some go for as little as $200.

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