The 2007 Asus EeePC Netbook was a very low cost ($200), solid state, diskless pc with a 7" screen, low-power Intel Atom processor, very long battery duration and instant on/off switch. The low processing power was offset by avoiding Microsoft and running more efficient Linux sofware.
Netbooks were hugely popular with computer professionals who wanted a secondary device in addition to their full sized power laptop.

Sales of low-margin netbooks were so high that chip manufactures considered them a threat to sales of more expensive laptop processors. The whole industry began a campaign to kill off the netbook.
Microsoft was added for "compatiblity".
Screens were increased in size to improve "usabiliy"
Discs were added to improve storage capacity for MS
More powerful chips were used to run MS.
Battery life was reduced.
Instant on/off was lost.
A PR campaign was started to blur the line between laptops and netbooks. The term Notebook was introduced to describe small laptops similar in spec to the now larger netbooks, in the hope of confusing people. PR surveys declared that people were dissatisfied with netbooks compared to the performance of notebooks
Eventually the original concept netbook died under pressure from PR, manufacturers, and the introduction of smartphones/pads