John Jacobs

Netbooks have been flying off store shelves all year long, driven by consumers looking for ways to save money during economically challenging times. According to the latest figures from DisplaySearch, netbook revenue is poised to rise 72 percent year-over-year to $11.4 billion in 2009, even as sales of portable PCs overall decline 12 percent to $109.4 billion.

Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell took some serious swipes at netbooks in a speech Tuesday to the Churchill Club in San Jose, Calif. The question is whether he really doesn't believe in the category, or just doesn't believe in it as it exists today.

In what may be a sign of the economic times, low-cost netbooks continue to gain momentum in a struggling PC market. Nearly 33 million netbooks, also known as mini-notebooks, will ship this year as penetration into the PC market grows to 20 percent worldwide, according to NPD Group subsidiary DisplaySearch's Quarterly Notebook PC Shipment and Forecast Report.

Traditional notebooks -- described as laptops with displays of 12.1 inches and larger -- are expected to see flat year-over-year sales for the first time.

Acer outdueled Asus in the third quarter to become the world's No. 1 seller of mini-notebook PCs, according to DisplaySearch and Gartner.

Though Asus essentially created the mini-notebook segment in late 2007, DisplaySearch reports that Acer was able to capture more than 35 percent of the market globally in the third quarter, stripping market share from its main rival. Gartner confirmed that the rivals have swapped market-share slots.