Netbooks

Microsoft Hardware is announcing today the Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 5000. This is like the “little brother” to the Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 – but without the separate number pad. The Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 5000 is a full-size keyboard and is light-weight with a very slim design. It features the approved design by Microsoft’s resident Ergonomist Dr. Dan Odell.

Last week in New York, ASUS unveiled the ZENBOOK ultra-portable PC. The ZENBOOK represents collaboration between ASUS and Intel on a category of stylish and thin PCs called Ultrabooks introduced by Intel.

Today Sony has revealed a new VAIO S Series Windows PC (VAIO SE) with a 15.5-inch full-on 1080p HD display. The VAIO S Series has a slim and light design with an optional sheet battery for impressive battery life (up to 12 hours!).

Last Sunday, AT&T kicked off a special offer where you can buy an Acer Aspire TimelineX AS1830T and a Windows Phone (either a Samsung Focus or LG Quantum) for just $199.99 with new 2-year service agreement. It’s a pretty sweet deal for a Windows 7 PC and a new Windows Phone 7 device!

Sony is one of those companies where you can be pretty sure that when they release something new, it’s going to be awesome.  That was certainly the case at CES 2011, where VAIO Product Manager Kevin Sather showed me just a few of their newest PCs.  In addition to the brand new ultralight Sony Y (powered by AMD’s new processors) that starts at $549, I got to check out Sony’s new VAIO F 3D laptop, which packs a new second-generation Intel i7 quad-core processor and Blu-Ray, and the impressively designed refres

Acer is probably best known for being one of the players responsible for sparking the netbook craze with the launch of their immensely popular Acer Aspire One. Today, they’re refreshing that line with two new AMD-powered netbooks, the 11.6” Acer Aspire One AO721 and the 10.1” Acer Aspire One AO521.

More cool news from the Sony camp. The new VAIO Z and VAIO Y Series laptops will come with Sony’s embedded wireless technology called Share My Connection™ (SMC). SMC lets you turn a laptop into a mobile wireless access point that can connect up to five other PCs or networked devices.

There is some interesting discussion happening today regarding netbook sales, namely that new devices may be negatively impacting sales and growth.

Paul Thurrott has done a nice job of separating hype from reality. He references IDC’s forecast that 45.6 million mininotebooks (aka netbooks) will be sold in 2011 and 60.3 million units in 2013.

Today at CTIA Wireless 2010, T-Mobile is announcing they will begin selling the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook with T-Mobile webConnect, powered by Windows 7 and built-in mobile broadband for T-Mobile’s 3G network. The Mini 10 is a 10” netbook that comes with Windows 7 Starter, an Intel Atom N450 processor, weighs just 3 pounds, and has an integrated 6-cell battery for up to 8 hours of continuous usage.