As we mentioned in previous articles as well, the netbook market is currently marked by a tendency of gradual growth, so the fact that more and more manufacturers are reported to be working on their own low-cost notebooks should come as no surprise. However, this might mean that, by sometime next year, ASUS, MSI, and Acer will have to face a very strong competition from names like Sony, Toshiba and NEC.

According to recent reports, these Japanese-based PC vendors are expected to release their own products even before the end of the year. Fujitsu is also among those that are set to launch onto the market with its own Atom-powered netbook, dubbed the X110, as we already told you yesterday. Nevertheless, much unlike with the case of Fujitsu's X110, the details on the netbooks coming from Sony, Toshiba and NEC are currently unavailable. Were we to follow the ongoing trend of leaked information about unannounced products, we could say with certainty that we'll soon know more about what they might bring.

At this point in time, according to Digitimes, Sony is said to release a low-cost notebook that will be manufactured by Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry). Apparently, Foxconn will only provide the components for Sony's notebook and will refrain from venturing on the market itself, at least not at this time. But we must not forget that, in the end, what we're dealing with here are unconfirmed rumors - so keep an eye on this space for more info.

Besides the above-mentioned manufacturers, Dell is also expected to come out with a netbook, whose forthcoming availability has been revealed by Michael Dell himself. One interesting aspect regarding it is that, despite not having surfaced yet, it is already considered one of the best alternatives to ASUS' Eee PC. This just goes to show how popular netbooks have become lately.

With all that, if any of these manufacturers releases a product to become more successful then ASUS' Eee PC, it will still have to thank the Taiwanese manufacturer for paving the way for a new market, one that is expected to considerably boost the number of units of portable computer systems sold.