It's not the same thing. Netbooks were forced to use a 20 GB OS with much more bloated apps compared to the lean mobile alternatives, and on a single core processor. Use Office on a netbook, and then use an "Office" app on iPad. See which is faster.
The thing about netbooks is that everything from the OS itself to the applications written for Windows were made with powerful processors in mind, and as processors became more powerful, those apps became more resource intensive as well. Then you took all that and crammed it into a very low-performance netbook.
Mobile operating systems and apps were designed from the ground up to use very little resources and be lean so they don't use a lot of battery life, either. So yeah, the comparison is not the same. The most "advanced" app on a dual core tablet will probably feel just as fast as the "most advanced" program on a high-end PC, if not faster.
mmm.. yes that is true. It will be interesting to see which paradigm wins or we might have all of them exist side by side. Apple is betting on separation of mobile and full size computers. Windows and Ubuntu are betting on the same OS on all screens.
I think either Apple's method or going bottom-up with Android, but they have to fix the problem of making "mobile apps" work well in desktop environments, too. Plus, they probably need an improved Android UI for desktops as well, although the current tablet ICS one comes pretty close to a desktop interface. But they need to enable a more "desktop-like multi-tasking" and so on.
The thing about netbooks is that everything from the OS itself to the applications written for Windows were made with powerful processors in mind, and as processors became more powerful, those apps became more resource intensive as well. Then you took all that and crammed it into a very low-performance netbook.
Mobile operating systems and apps were designed from the ground up to use very little resources and be lean so they don't use a lot of battery life, either. So yeah, the comparison is not the same. The most "advanced" app on a dual core tablet will probably feel just as fast as the "most advanced" program on a high-end PC, if not faster.