I have limited Internet and no phone access back the U.S. from here in Prague, but I do have a few news bytes to share:

Research firm Displaysearch reported that nearly six million netbooks which it calls “mini-note PCs”  were sold in the first quarter, comprising 20% of worldwide notebook sales. Acer was the leader with 30.5 % followed by Asus with half as many sales. Mini-note PCs sold especially well in Europe, the Middle East, Asia (not including China) and Latin America. Sales were slower in China, Japan and North America.

There’s no doubt netbooks are taking off, but I have yet to see evidence of them in the  Internet cafes of Prague where I am vacationing. Europe has reportedly been a sales hotspot for netbooks. None of my son’s college-mates at Charles Univerisity here this semester had them either, but most of the 100 or so in his program were from the U.S.

He just sat down at a netbook (mine) for the first time and complained a blue streak about the size of the keyboard. Such a reaction is to be expected given how much smaller it is than the keyboard in his powerful Dell XPS notebook. But with the introduction of 92 per cent keyboard in many new models such as Dell’s 10v, such complaints should lessen.