With the start of 2011 in sight, vendors are thinking about their product strategies in the New Year. In order to do that, they also need to examine how the market changed in the past year. Part of this process includes determining which devices, whether smartphones, tablets, laptops or anything else, will help them generate the most profit. Vendors that have been competing in the netbook market will especially need to consider how they should spend their research and development dollars in the coming year. Going into 2010, netbooks were all the rage both in the consumer market and the enterprise. But as soon as Apple introduced the iPad tablet and several similar devices followed it, netbooks lost their value to customers around the world. Netbook vendors that expected to generate big profits on those devices missed out. With the start of 2011, those companies need to realize that tablets are well on their way to eliminating netbooks altogether. The industry may get an early indication of how strongly buyers are interested in tablets during the Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas. A significant number of new tablet models will be on display at the show. A year from now, the companies that stick with netbooks will be the companies that find themselves far behind the competition. Here are the reasons why tablets will eliminate netbooks as growing product category in 2011. – …