While ordinary consumers and youth population are getting increasingly interested in netbooks the latter do not seem to have any impression on small and medium business customers. According to a study by Spiceworks over 2/3 of SMBs plan on buying new PCs and laptops in the next six months, but netbooks are a low priority.

The survey reports that only 13% of SMBs have plans of acquiring a netbook which is compared to 56% who plan to buy a new laptop and 55% who plan to purchase a new desktop. In addition 45% of them also plan to purchase servers.

The reasons that motivate SMBs to abstain from purchasing netbooks were not cited in the survey of Spiceworks. According to some observers one challenge could be the fact that the form factor is smaller than most business laptops - and certainly desktops - making them seem unsuited to the kinds of workers that like to load up on applications and who need lots of windows and keyboard space.

Furthermore, some businesses still view netbooks as a second purchase after your regular laptop, which makes them (possibly) look like a luxury item to IT buyers.

In an indication of SMB buying habits, Spiceworks noted the average new hardware order for an SMB is expected to include 13 desktops, 10 laptops, and two servers.