Initially I thought tablets would be just a fad, because, well, I had about zero interest in having one. Not surprisingly, this "logic" seems to have turned out quite wrong; tablets being an appliance for those who don't want to bother to, or can't, maintain their computers, which is a mass market.
If netbooks, as the article suggests, were never a core offering for Dell, then it makes sense they'd be among the first to drop them. I think there still could be a medium-term future for netbooks, since they do fill a niche. Laptops are too big and heavy, and ultrabooks too big, to carry around unclumsily in a world of smartphones. But as other vendors start to back off from netbooks, there could arise some good price discounts for the opportunistic economical geek.
And then of course, there is always the local recycle room or dumpster.
