14 DAY TRIAL // Hewlett-Packard is currently present on the sub-notebook market with its 2133 Mini-Note PC, whose availability the company announced back in April 2008. Since then, quite a host of other manufacturers, including ASUS, Acer and MSI, have launched their own Atom-powered netbooks. Given its different specifications and price tag, HP's Mini-Note couldn't possibly compete with these recently released products, but that doesn't mean all chances for the company to do so have evaporated. According to recent reports, the company is said to be working on a new 10-inch netbook.
Digitimes reports that HP is currently working on a series of 10.1 and 10.2-inch netbooks that should be launched in October. The same source also claims, based on what industry insiders have revealed, that the upcoming products will be manufactured by Inventec.
The details about the rumored netbooks are scarce at this point, but HP too is said to be about to jump on the Intel Atom bandwagon, which will most likely set the new additions as competitors to ASUS' Eee PC 1000 and 1000H, as well as to MSI's Wind and Lenovo's recently announced IdeaPad S10. The October release date is believed to have been set on account of the current shortage of 10-inch panels.
HP also plans to diversify its netbook offer, which is why the initial 10.1 model will come equipped with an SSD and will have a display resolution of 1024 by 576. Meanwhile, another model, due to arrive in Q1 2009, will give users the option of choosing between an SSD or a traditional hard drive. Apparently, the latter model will be integrated into the company's enterprise range, meaning it will probably be designed to compete with ASUS' Ultimate Eee PC lineup.
As mentioned above, details about these products are to yet emerge - the same goes for the estimated price tag that will be slapped onto them. Still, it is interesting to observe that one of the leading notebook manufacturers has finally decided to become a better competitor in the emerging netbook market.