14 DAY TRIAL // Dell might be doing what Acer plans to do, only faster, as its online store has been quietly removing some products, like the Dell Mini line of netbooks.
Yesterday, we heard it mentioned that Acer will reduce its number of product lines by two thirds starting in next year (2012).
Now, it looks like Dell is doing the same, only starting a bit earlier than its rival on the PC market.
Some may remember that online sales of the Streak 7 and Streak 5 tablets have stopped.
Dell has continued its reduction of product lines by ceasing sales of Dell Mini entry-level laptops (netbooks).
The company didn't even come out and say this was happening, though we are certain it will eventually explain its plans, if not now, then at CES 2012 (Consumer Electronics Show).
For now, though, it only removed the 10-inch devices from its online store and left a various notes behind to be found by the search engine.
All in all, Dell says that customers should look to the Inspiron 14R series of 14-inch notebooks, which aren't really portable and cheap like the Mini netbooks.
The one machine that might still be found for sale is the 11.6-inch Inspiron 11z, whose supplies probably won't last long.
The Verge claims that they got confirmation from Dell that all existing netbooks are getting sacked and that there won't be new ones either.
In other words, Intel's Atom Cedar Trail CPUs will not find their way into any Dell machines.
The Inspiron Duo tablet/netbook hybrid continues to sell well at least, but that alone is not enough to prevent Dell form switching focus to Ultrabooks.
Given that the market for netbooks was probably saturated by now anyway, there is quite a bit of logic to this move, though Dell might still want to consider preserving one or two mobile PCs with smaller screen sizes than 14 inches.