Nokia drops MeeGo phone before launch (Reuters)

Nokia drops MeeGo phone before launch (Reuters)

Around 2008 a lot of things started to converge: Intel released the Atom processor, which they had had in development for several years, Asus started to get interested in creating small laptops, and the term netbook started to gain credence. OLPC (which was arm-based if I remember correctly) probably led people to take the idea of small laptops more seriously, but it's kind of hard to prove cause and effect here.

The OLPC uses an AMD Geode CPU which one might argue isn't really as great a choice as ARM for, say, power efficiency, but then the screen is usually a bigger concern in a laptop, hence the interest in a non-backlit viewing mode for the screen (as well as the benefits of the back-reflective screen in bright sunlight).

Most people run Windows XP on their netbooks and use an x86-based chipset.

Most people don't really get a choice about that, however. Indeed, there are various devices out there which would once have been called "subnotebooks" using MIPS processors, such as those made by Lemote and other Taiwanese/Chinese vendors, not to mention stuff from the likes of Sharp which is only available in Japan, but these are kept conveniently outside the mainstream.