If you look at the most popular netbooks on the market side-by-side, you'll find that one thing is missing from all of them: graphics hardware powerful enough to handle 3D games or even high quality video. The addition of such hardware wouldn't technically be impossible (some almost-but-not-quite-netbook laptops already have adequate graphics) but a graphics chipset manufacturer like NVIDIA or ATI would have to invest some effort into it. So far, they haven't been in any rush.

Speaking about netbooks to attendees of a technology conference, an NVIDIA representative said: "We're not saying we're not interested; it's a matter of how the market will evolve." This wait-and-see approach is shared with Apple's Steve Jobs, but even longtime hold-out Sony looks poised to finally jump into the market. Even while NVIDIA is waiting for the market to mature, netbooks are becoming a huge hit. How long will it take them to come around, and what will it look like when they do?