I've got four main computers that I use:
- Custom built PC in my office, Core i7, RAID, 2x 24" Ultrasharps, SLI'd GTX280's, ect. It's fast, and does everything I want from video capture and encoding to photo editing, to gaming.
- iMac sitting next to it that I do most of my web browsing, document writing, ect on. It's not nearly as fast as my main computer, but it does all the tasks I ask of it nicely.
- Thinkpad T500, my main laptop, again it's big, amazing battery life, amazingly fast, and overall about as much as I could ask for in a machine of it's class (better than the 15" MBP IMO for less $), but it's not something I would want to carry around all the time unless I need the power it has.
- Lenovo S10, I almost always have this with me because it's so easy to keep in my backpack, and not have to worry about it. It does what I need it to perfectly well, and that is email, light web browsing, and some occasional document editing. I don't need tons of power or a large screen for these light duty tasks. I could do all of my things from my phone, but they would take twice as long (if not longer), and it's a real PITA. Also my S10 makes a great car computer, I have it run my GPS and tunes while on a long trip and it works absolutley fantastic for this purpose as well, and the 10" screen is a hell of a lot easier to glance at while driving than a 3" screen on a phone, and a 15" laptop would be too large to put on the mount and still be able to get to the rest of the center console controls.
People who "don't get" netbooks clearly aren't in the market, or don't understand that they're not meant to be a primary computer, just a fill in.
It's also worth noting that a few years ago, something that had a 7-10" screen, was light, small, and really portable would have cost upwards of $1500. Hell I remember paying well over $2000 for my X41 tablet back in the day.
