Still, I could buy 3-4 of my old eeePCs for the price of a Mac Air, and neither is really in the same form-factor. When you're working an $8/hour work-study job for your discretionary income, that price differential matters. The eee was also great for fitting on those comically tiny lecture hall chair-desk surfaces that a 10-13 inch laptop would swallow up, with room to spare for a honking big container of bad, strong coffee.
They would also fit on an economy-seat airline seat, and I didn't have to worry about the douche (no offense) in front of me breaking it by slamming his seat into recline mode. Was awesome.
A niche that existed for years before and was filled by (slightly less useless) subnotebooks like the Macbook Air, or Thinkpad X series.