The use of netbooks by small businesses in IT may become commonplace, if not standard, if the benefits of them are realised, according to a technology commentator.

Maggie Holland, the editor of IT Pro, stated that many will be put off by the price of them and as a result, she did not think that they are necessarily positioned to be the "panacea to current economic ills".

She continued: "However, that said, if businesses are able to use them to make their staff more efficient while out on the road - visiting clients and such like - this could result in increased productivity and, potentially, increased revenue streams."

It follows news which may be of interest to IT support individuals which was published by ABI Research this week.

Entitled The Down Economy Could Give Alternative Netbook Operating Systems a Hand Up, it was noted that netbooks may be escaping the problems associated with the credit crunch as that are still good value for money, as well as having the ability to run inexpensive programs.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.