Netbooks are a lot like cell phones. Since the first netbook models were released in late 2007, there has been a virtual flood of netbooks on the market today, with computer giants like Dell joining the flow. The netbook category would not have been possible without Taiwan-based Asus, the creator of the Asus Eee netbooks.

Everyone else in the computer industry hates Asus. Microsoft certainly blames rising netbook sales for its lower-than-expected earnings in the last quarter. In other segments of the computer industry, netbooks are the only ones expected to sell like hot cakes. So should you hate the company that created the netbook phenomenon?

Before offering netbooks, Asus made more motherboards than any other company in the world. You can find Asus motherboards on Sony PlayStation 2s, Apple MacBooks, Alienware personal computers, and on some HP computers.

Asus’ full-featured Eee mini laptop costs $ 69 less than Apple’s 16GB iPod Touch, it’s $ 100 cheaper than Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader. Asus’ most expensive netbook retails for $ 499. Before the Eee PC, Asus was not a well-known consumer brand. However, it expects to sell five million of its mini computers by the end of 2009.

The mini netbook concept is not new. In fact, before the Eee PC, Dell and Palm had planned to launch mini-notebooks, but Asus was ahead of them. So should you hate Asus? No, if you want powerful but inexpensive minicomputers that you can take with you wherever you go.