Dell coming out with eeepc competitor.

[davijordan]

Everyone is getting into it
http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc ... 266894719/

[greggh]

Wow. That's great. Dell getting into the Netbook game will really push prices down on these. All of this is really bad news for Asus. Their yet to be released 8.9" is starting to look like a cheap toy compared to the HP, and it's too late for a redesign. In this case being early may have really hurt them. I think we will be able to pick up a 9" eee for less than $400 pretty soon, and Asus will take a beating probably having to sell them below cost. Interesting cut-throat stuff happening here. That Sony Vaio division VP's fears may have been well founded when he talked about a "race to the bottom" when the eee came out.

http://www.thelinuxlink.net/forum/viewt ... f=2&t=2720

Here at Sony's annual Open House event, the senior vice president of Sony's IT product division said the tiny $299 notebook could potentially shift the entire notebook industry.

"If (the Eee PC from) Asus starts to do well, we are all in trouble. That's just a race to the bottom," said Mike Abary.

He means that if mainstream PC buyers start to find their needs met by a lightweight, simply featured, inexpensive portable, it's likely to impel all of the major players in the industry to pile on by lowering their prices. And that's in an industry with already low margins for retailers and manufacturers.

If the Eee PC just catches on with Linux developers, enthusiasts, and the tech-savvy early adopter crowd, that's fine by him. "But if mainstream buyers buy it, then, whoa," Abary said.