[sunilbhargava]

Netbooks with great usability and gizmos that make for interesting apps(gps, touch etc) combined with a billing system that allows for subscription pricing for services would be as explosive as an iphone and the app store. It would be great way for companies to drive up the revenue beyond what they get from laptops today.

[ja2ke]

The App Store has nothing to do with subscription pricing. Are there explosively successful consumer software subscription services? All the ones I can think of which get close to piercing the general consumer consciousness are also-rans (Napster, Rhapsody), or are hardware locked (Xbox Live Arcade, which is more paying for arbitrary online access to Microsoft than anything -- the actual game content is still priced outside of the subscription, and on competing services on the Wii and PS3 online connectivity itself is free). I can't think of any subscription based marketplace (either subscribe to browse the contents of this marketplace risk free, or a marketplace for various subscription services) that has ever really caught in digital space. I'd love to be told what I'm missing here though! I don't really pay attention to this stuff from anything other than an end-user standpoint so I'd be interested in some great service or network I didn't know about.