With the global economic downturn, electronics manufacturers are looking at ways to introduce products that act as “recession busters” for sales. Research and development departments are stopping at nothing – and the new-style netbook is turning out to be a brainwave.

The netbook is one of the most popular electronic products of the year. It was originally regarded as a kind of personal computer, a spin-off from the One Laptop Per Child movement devised by US IT firms to find the cheapest possible laptop for use by poor children around the world.........