I’m sitting at Chipotle putting the finishing touches on an article about deciding between using thick clients (Word, Outlook) versus thin clients (Google Docs, Gmail) on netbooks, and a guy walks up to me and stares until I take out my earbuds (one of the reasons I love writing at Chipotle is that between my hearing damage and my –20db headphones, it’s actually less distracting here than at home).

He points at my HP Mini-note. “Where do you get a computer like that?” He explains that he needs to get a PC for his daughter in high school.

I tell him that for a high schooler, I wouldn’t actually recommend the HP, as it’s a little pricier than the competition. I tell him about the Asus eee 1000, which has a 10” screen, comes preloaded with XP and could run all the stuff she needs for school. Then I tell him he can find it locally at Best Buy for $399.

His eyes nearly pop out of his head, and he starts grinning widely. I make note of this, and he says, “Wow, that’s such a great deal.” He booked out of the restaurant and I’d bet dollars to donuts he was headed straight for Best Buy.

I see this sort of thing all the time. I’ve talked before about my 12-year-old niece’s netbook-lust, and the other day when she brought her friend over while I was at my sister’s for the Broncos humiliating defeat by game against the Patriots, her friend was also star struck at the possibilities afforded by a computer of her very own that she could take anywhere.

Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte discussed netbooks in this week’s Windows Weekly podcast (along with soundly thrashing Windows Mobile) and dismissed them as a temporary bridge between traditional laptops and future smartphones running desktop-class operating systems. While I like the idea of a Windows smartphone running the same Windows kernel as the desktop version, using the same API for programs and having binary compatibility with desktop Windows, but using a user interface optimized for mobile use, that doesn’t obviate netbooks.

I’ve used mobile phones for years as stand-ins for ultra-mobile PCs, and the problem isn’t the operating system or applications. As evidenced by the popularity of not only netbooks but devices like the Celio Redfly, form factor matters. A clamshell device with a larger screen and touch-typable keyboard is just better for some things. I post blog entries and read Google Reader from both my Treo and my Mininote, but I read ebooks exclusively on the Treo and write longer form work exclusively on the Mininote. It’s about using the right tool for the right job, and it’s becoming increasing obvious every day that netbooks are the tools a lot of people have been waiting for.

With Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pushing the Kindle like it’s chicken-fried Jesus and media heavyweights like Oprah on board, ebooks are finally getting some respect in the mainstream media.

Perhaps with Oprah’s help and a new and improved version due next year, the Kindle will achieve escape velocity and Amazon can stop showing me the annoying Kindle ad and disclose how many units have been sold. As for eliminating physical books from the warehouses, books are lagging music and video. The end of print is not near, but the writing is on the virtual wall. The economics of the Internet, as well as technology innovations such as improved virtual paper, instant translation, and always on, fast connections to a universe of knowledge indicate that Bezos is on the right track, just as he was in creating a virtual shopping mall for physical goods in 1994. And, he will have lots of company, or competition, as the digital age gets into full swing.

Amazon’s Kindle obsession: Bury the printed book | Outside the Lines - CNET News

I’m on record, many, many times, as saying standalone ebook readers are a dumb idea. While I haven’t yet seen a Kindle “in the wild” I have seen several Sony readers and I remain unimpressed by e-ink technology. I read more books on my Treo, I’d wager, than even the most avid Kindle fan. And eReader on the iPhone has become the most widely used ebook reader on the market (what the heck, the iPhone may as well be good for something).

But I was predicting the end of print over a decade ago, and that was before a whole new generation was introduced to Harry Potter. While I don’t have much use for them myself, printed books aren’t going anywhere for a long time, and the Kindle, for all its advantages (e-ink, great battery life, built in EVDO connection for buying and downloading books directly) isn’t going to get bibliophiles like my mom to stop lugging tree pulp around.

As for me, I’ll stick with smartphones. I like the look of the rumored second generation Kindle (and was it intentional to name this thing after paper used to start a fire?) but I’m already lugging around a smartphone, netbook and all the associated power cables, sync cables, batteries and whatnot for those. I have room to add a Kindle to my Scott e-Vest (seriously!) but I don’t honestly see the point when I can read perfectly comfortably on my phone.