Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) blamed its crummy numbers on something you may never have heard of -- netbooks. Why should you care? Because netbooks -- $200 to $500 stripped down laptops designed for web surfing -- are growing faster than any market I know of -- 11 million were sold in 2008 and 22 million are likely to fly of the shelf in 2009.

Netbooks are making Microsoft's valuable Windows franchise vulnerable after two decades of dominance. That's because if Microsoft is used to selling Windows to a desktop or laptop maker for $300 or $400 a copy, it is not going to make much headway with a netbook maker who is selling the entire device for $300. The netbook phenomenon will force Microsoft to either come up with a much less expensive operating system or continue to see its Windows revenue -- which fell for the first time in history in the last quarter of 2008 -- shrink.

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Are netbooks the next big thing? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.