Like I said a few months ago, what ASUS did created a whole new market segment; and all the other players would have to respond -- not just validating/participating in this market, but fighting for a share. Yes, it will erode some other categories of portable, but it's inevitable and they have no choice.

Mandatory_Field

Maybe companies finally realize that in a laptop, we don't really need oodles of power but oodles of battery life in a small form factor!

dagamer34

IMHO it is good to see another player in this segment.

mastakilla

HP dosn't have a LOW coast laptop line. Nothing HP sells is low cost. At least, in the same ballpark as the asus Eee pC.

Anyone who buys HP is a vegan, or drinks milk or both. Which makes them a hippo-crate. That means you house hippos, which is probably illegal in this country, since they are practically dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are illegal, so you are a illegalist.

Wait for the Eeep PC with ATOM and GPS :) If you dont, you will be late for work. Then, get fired and kicked in the parabolic's.

Stacky Botrus

In some ways it might be easier.

The market has it's share of players in it already. Maybe they'll look at the other designs and fill in the design gaps while keeping it affordable?

I'm not holding my breath, but it's certainly a possibility.

strider_mt2k

I'm just waiting for an extremely good small one for my daughter to mess with... And I don't want one from OLPC.

human3rror

@Stacky Botrus: Are you putting beer on your Wheaties again?

@Mandatory_Field: To be fair, I think it was Palm that defined the market with the Foleo, and it was Asus that proved the market with the Eee.

Seriously though, it is funny that the "UMPC" has evolved in a completely different way than Microsoft had predicted. The devices Microsoft charted are low-volume, high-priced niche products while the market for simple, cheap, light traditional laptops not powered by Windows is exploding. Microsoft is scrambling to catch up and throw Windows of any flavor on anything they can. And still the term UMPC is applied to them as if it were Microsoft's idea all along.

weatherman

this might get INTRESTING.... <3... Can't wait 'till dual cores under $400...

Bash_

Suggestion to Dell: offer it with XP. Don't force Vista on us.

Samifumi

Somebody is going to get this right eventually. From my perspective the first one with instant on, good size SSD, reasonable battery life and as small as possible with a usable keyboard for a good price (<400) will get my money.

I can wait.

crycry

these tiny low end laptops kinda piss me off. Seriously - if I want to spend less than $500 for a laptop, I'll buy a used one on ebay that has more than four gigs of storage. Sure, small, compact, bla bla bla, but I'm just not into it.

What The Geek

This would be a great time for Dell to make Ubuntu a standard OS choice. Maybe not the default (that will probably be XP), but a choice for all models in the line.

I've been expecting Dell to jump into this space for a while now. The only thing I'm wondering is whether they'll bring the Inspiron line down to the 700s and 900s or if they'll make a new name for the category.

We can also hope that all of this activity will convince Apple to finally re-release a MacBook mini. It's been too long since the 12" MacBook Pro.

Brock

@What The Geek: what's to get pissed off about? Just don't buy it!

BTW if you check out the specs on the HP2130 or whatever that new one is called, it's actually a really decent machine. The $500 version is pretty gimped, but when you get to $600 or $700 it actually starts looking better than the macbook air. Which of course makes it a completely different market than a $400 Eee, but I'm liking the variety of ultralights that is coming out these days.

weatherman

@Stacky Botrus: well said... for the moment only Asus and Everest enter the "low cost umpc market"...

Dude27

@Samifumi: if dell actually does this, it will be with xp home.

@What The Geek: if they piss you off, then i would suggest getting help for you anger management issues. i love my eee pc. sure i could by some cheap used or refurb piece of crap off ebay for probably just over the $350 i paid for my 4g surf, but all i wanted the eee for was as an ultra small and light computer for email, im, and web surfing, and very occasional word processing. the eee does this all perfectly for me. plus since i can tether it to my phone i have internet access pretty much anywhere via wifi, ethernet, or 3g. it already has all the apps i'm likely to use on it out of the box, and as far as file storage capacity, 2 gig and higher capacity sd and flash drives or so cheap i could care less about it having a 4 gig sshd. that said, the eee is not my primary laptop, and i wouldnt want it for that, so the "i can buy a regular laptop for the same price" might work fr you, but the whole point here is that the eee is *not* a regular laptop, hence the whole umpc deal.

firesign

@What The Geek: You know what pisses me off? Carrots. If I want to eat a root vegetable I'll eat an onion. They're much more flavorful with every bite and don't turn your skin that George Hamilton kind of orange if you eat too many.

-AP-

i believe the day is coming where the low end low cost laptop market market will become so large that businesses like best buy will wind up devoting a (relatively) considerable amount of floorspace specially for this niche' market.

If it'll play java web games, youtube videos, music, (as well as basic apps such as OO) is easy to use (a la Ubuntu) and is cheap and will last at least a year or two, then this market is definately something that will continue to grow. there are alot more people in the US as well as throughout the world that are in need of a cheap reliable computer than a high end extremely expensive and rather senseless for them to own.

jrghoull

@Samifumi:

It wont have vista. They need to give you at least 2gb of ram for vista. Dells low end PCs already come with XP and not vista.

Im actually surprised that dell is doing this or that they care. 85% of dells customers are business and government.

NutManIV

@dagamer34: Which is why it kinda disappoints me that my bf-laptop gets the same battery life as the eee. Shouldn't smaller laptops last for like, hours and hours on end?

cyborgtroy

C'mon dell! You can get it right! Offer one with comparably small size with a 2.5" HDD.

Does it have to be 2 - 16GB SDD?

FinalValgas

@-AP-: and BEETS! Don't get me started.

strider_mt2k

@firesign: @weatherman: @-AP-:

alright, point taken - perhaps "pissed off" was a bit of an overstatement. Nevertheless, I can't help but feel like the latest batch of UMPC's, while better than the first few, still aren't quite ready for prime time. Maybe I'm being a penny pincher, but it just doesn't feel like there's much bang for you buck in most of the Eee's and similar models.

I'm personally in the market for a new laptop, and I'm on a budget, so the Eee was one of the first things I looked at - and then I kept looking. Like I said before, for the same price (or less) I can get a more powerful regular sized laptop on ebay. I get the appeal of the small form factor, but that's just not enough for me.

What The Geek

But will it blend/float/play WoW?

ackthbbft

@firesign:
"if dell actually does this, it will be with xp home."

I could see an Ubuntu option - Dell already sells linux systems preloaded, and if you're going to go lightweight on the hardware, it only makes sense to reduce OS bloat wherever possible.

nutbastard

@weatherman: I don't agree. The Folio was intended to be a Smartphone "companion" device that required a Smartphone to achieve full functionality -- and never made it to market -- wheras the Eee is a true full-functioned (albeit low end) PC. On top of which, it changed the market by being avaiable in the marketplace....

Mandatory_Field

@Mandatory_Field: What Palm had was a failure of marketing. If you look at the specs they're not that far off from the Eee. Okay, maybe it's a little light compared to the Eee and there's no way that it would have run XP, but the purpose was essentially the same; slim and light mobile browsing and light productivity device. The fact that it was integrated with smartphones was just gravy. Palm screwed up by making that the focus of their marketing, trying to build on their brand and existing audience rather than releasing a "new" product. Instead it came off as if they were Ford trying to sell a gas tanker to every new Mustang owner.

But you're right - the Eee made it to market (I'm typing on one now) and the Foleo didn't. So Asus gets credit for succeeding even if the device wasn't all that original.

@What The Geek: glad you calmed down a bit - I thought you were going to blow a fuse! :)

I understand your frustration. The Eee is not a laptop replacement for most needs. It's a second or third computer to use in coffee shops, primarily. I think the next wave of cheap-n-light laptops is going to appeal to you much more as the "feature creep" starts its inevitable slide towards larger and more expensive options. The HP 2133 I mentioned earlier is looking really good to me, though it is a little disappointing that getting a decent processor in it is so expensive. I think the Dell's will be similar.

weatherman

What would help laptops for travel / battery issue would be power to the armrest on airlines so as to get some work done and maybe more than half a movie. (How many times will they play "GamePlan" although the kid reminds me of my daughter...

rollypolly39

@ackthbbft: The only thing I'm interested in is if it'll be capable of playing Starcraft 2...

qld