I don't think most pundits are "getting" the driving force behind the popularity of netbooks. Netbook users (like myself) use them because of the complete freedom they offer for very little money. Focusing on cloud services will KILL netbooks, not help them. Tethering us to online services in order to accomplish our tasks is nearly as bad as tethering us to a big heavy laptop or tethering us to a desktop. We want self-contained, self-sufficient, extreme portability for a reasonable price.
Also, anything with a screen bigger than 10" is no longer a netbook. It is a mini-notebook. If the machine gets bigger than a large book, it defeats the purpose of having a netbook. A netbook doesn't require a laptop case to tote. You can throw it in a pocket on your suitcase.
On my inexpensive netbook with extended battery, I can watch two full-length feature films during a cross-country flight and still have enough battery left to type up a document or two using Open Office. I have the same applications I use on my desktop in the space of a hardcover book and I can use it for nearly six hours sitting under a tree in the park. That freedom is the appeal of netbooks.
If all of my apps were thin-client and cloud-based, I'd be sitting on that flight or under that tree twiddling my thumbs with no Internet connection. There is no freedom in that. Netbooks + thin-client/cloud = disaster.
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