Boom in Netbook Sales Powers New Features

An unexpected 10 million netbooks—scaled down, lower-priced laptops—were  sold in 2008, sending tech companies racing into the market, the Wall Street Journal reports. At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, market segments like cell phones and PCs seem to be converging faster than ever as they try to improve on the devices.

First-generation netbooks are simple Web browsers and suffer from problems like long boot-up times and weak graphics display. But as companies race to improve features, they're becoming more like notebooks. For instance, HP’s new dv2, to be announced today, is the size and price of a netbook but possesses many features found on high-end laptops.
(More Consumer Electronics Show stories.)