Netbooks do face some hurdles. One is poor marketing: So far most vendors have given their netbooks names too similar to their notebook lines, such as the Dell Inspiron Mini and the HP Mini-Note. "This branding strategy is dangerous -- it cultivates consumers' confusion about whether netbooks are, in fact, laptops or something else," wrote Gownder.

The marketing problem seems borne out in the report's statistic that almost a quarter of U.S. consumers think of netbooks as replacements for a more expensive laptop. These consumers might not realize that screens and keyboards are much smaller and that netbooks' weak processors limit them to Web-based pursuits such as e-mail, Google Docs and Flickr.

Netbooks are decidedly not just small laptops. On a performance scale of 1 to roughly 100, PC World places netbooks , compared to scores of more than 100 for full-size laptops with the latest dual-core Intel processors.

The most successful netbooks will be those bundled with synchronization services like Microsoft's Live Mesh, said the report. Vendors should also consider selling netbooks to kids bundled with full-size laptops for their parents, complete with management software that lets mom and dad monitor Internet usage.