Last week, at the lau­nch of the Apple’s iPad, the founder and CEO Steve

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Jobs was rather dismissive of netbooks. He slammed them as “slow” and sporting “low-quality displays”. The problem with th­em, he said, is that “netbooks aren’t better than anything. They are just cheap laptops.”

Despite the harsh words from Jobs, netbooks will continue to thrive, say analysts and commentators, who cite the tablet’s missing features and relatively high price. According to some technology commentators, the iPad is nothing more than an overgrown iPod Touch — the next generation iPod that resembles an iPhone in most features except the ability to make telephone calls. Other commentators suggest that Apple should have launched an “iNetbook” running Mac with other Apple software, rather than a tablet PC.

According to ABI Research analyst Jeff Orr, “The iPad prices and gaps in functionality are likely to leave the door open for other media tablet vendors.” For example, as per ABI estimates, 4 million tablets such as the iPad and the lesser-known Archos 5 will be shipped this year. This would be a fraction compared to 35 million netbook sales, a number expected to increase. But before passing a judgment let’s compare the two.

On design, the iPad is one and a half inch thick and weighs just around 1.5 pounds. This is less than half the size and weight of most netbooks in the market. The reduction in weight is achieved by the absence of a physical keyboard on the iPad. This makes the iPad superior to the netbooks on design.

The iPad does not have a webcam or a built-in camera although most smartphones, including netbooks, come with such a device. The lack of camera on the iPad is being severely criticised. An article in ReadWriteWeb says, “the lack of a camera on the iPad is a serious problem. Images and video are a big part of the interactivity on the Web that people have become used to, and we're not sure how they'll react to a device that, on the surface, seems like it should have these capabilities but is instead sorely lacking.”

Despite a virtual keyboard, the lack of a physical one might limit the amount of data entry and writing work that an iPad could support, say analysts. Jack Gold wonders if users will be able to “do any serious work” without a physical keyboard.

On screen sizes, both devices compete closely. The iPad’s support for a 9.7-inch LCD display is on par with most netbooks, but other recent models of netbooks have 11 or 12 inch screens. Another advantage is that the netbooks shipped this year are likely to have brighter lower-powered “OLED screen” rather than the conventional LCD displays.

On the web-surfing front, again both devices compete closely. An Apple acquisition, P.A. Semiconductor, designed iPad's 1-GHz CPU and is reportedly fast where the device will support a Wi-Fi or optional 3G from AT&T (in the US) for connectivity almost anywhere. Within the US, the 3G iPad add-on costs an additional $130 but offers all-you-can-surf for a package cost of only $30 a month, or 250MB of data per month for $15 and without a long-term contract. This is for sure cheaper than the netbook plans for 3G, which average about $60 a month in the US.

But the flip side of the iPad is lack of support for Adobe Systems' Flash player. The Flash player is frequently used today and one could install Windows and Linux versions of the player on netbooks. Not on iPad.

The iPad loses out to netbooks on storage space. It comes with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB versions of flash memory (where greater memory comes at a greater price). That's the same as in SSD-based netbooks, but less than that of hard drive based netbooks, which are more popular. Netbooks have USB and/or SD slots for more storage and the iPad lacks both.

It runs Apple applications like iWork and iTunes, but, probably for office work where you need to check email and use other Windows applications, the netbooks offer more versatility.

The major downside of the iPad is its price. The iPad starts at $499 and increases to $829 for a fully loaded, 3G-enabled version (this is the quoted price on Apple website). Netbooks start at about $250 and top out to $600 or $700 for premium models.

The iPad is a product for those relaxing on a chair to watch a video or read an e-book and also happens to have iWork. The netbook is supposed to be a cheap laptop for those looking to do some real work. According to Orr, ABI Research expects little impact on netbook shipments in 2010 from the introduction of media tablets like iPad.

Varun Dutt is a doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh and Knowledge Editor of Financial Chronicle