2BMobile

The latest rumors about an Apple tablet is that it will have either an 8" or 10" screen and sell for around $400, just in time for the holiday season this year.  We believe that Apple coming out with a tablet-netbook device will create a new product category much as they have successfully done with the  iPod and iPhone.  A

Netbooks have clearly been embraced by millions of people as a cost-effective means to use the Internet while on the go.  The research conducted by Display Research shows that world wide, the laptop/notebook market demand is stronger than in any other segment.

There have been several articles circulating on the Web about how to convert some the $300 Netbooks into Mac-like machines.  Of course you need to have a copy of the Mac OS and an external DVD drive to load the OS onto the Netbook.  It is a poor man's Mac Air-book.  The main problem with going this route is  OS and hardware compatibility.  The netbook manufacturers do not support the Mac OS and you know Apple is not going to walk you through a  non-Mac creation.

With the average cost of a 10" Netbook  under $400 and the 8" average  under $300 US as of April 2008 why would I pay almost $ 89 for a replacement battery for one them? If you also consider that Netbooks come with a one year standard product warranty and after the warranty period is over it will cost you $75 to have a technician diagnose the problem why not just replace it with a new unit.

Some articles recently by the electronic press indicated that a couple of manufacturers are working on building a new generation of products that have good graphics. The next generation of Intel's successful Atom microprocessor could get as low as $200 for a netbook or a nettop box, which when coupled with the current movement of putting application in the Cloud as SaaS  makes for some very interesting new possibilities for businesses that need to have their employees connected to get their work done.

Dell's Mini 9 Netbook is being sold at rock bottom prices to make way for the new Dell Mini 10 which has a 10" screen, a larger keyboard, and a 160GB hard drive making it much more competitive with the leaders Asus and MSI products. I have seen the Mini 9 with XP Home OS on Walmart's SamClub's website for $249 delivered and choice of color (a $30 adder from Dell).