I’ve been following the recent development of the new “Netbook” laptop category. It was started with ASUS and their EeePC but there have been many other entries by Dell, Acer, and others. Two of my colleagues at work got the Acer and like them and my brief look at a selection at Circuit City has sold me on the concept. A modestly-powered system (1.6 GHz CPU and 512M to 1G RAM) with a small screen (7-10″) but in a small and affordable package makes a very attractive option for things like web browsing and email.

I am quite hopeful Apple releases one at Macworld Expo next week, but I’m not holding my breath. While I think they would clean up with a $400-500 “MacBook Mini” I can’t help but think they are scared of what that might do to their bottom line.