The nice thing about an economic downturn is low prices. Bestbuy is offering, advertising even, $400 laptop computers. On recent trips through BestBuy, I notice many laptops for $400. Not until recently have such been so readily found. Previously, the record low price laptop was around $450, but only with discounts, usually mail-in rebates.

RadioShack is offering a $349 netbook. The specifications are pretty fantastic. It is plenty adequate for running Windows XP and most software most people would run. Biggest drawback is the shrunken keyboard. Dell offers a Mini 12. most exciting about Dell’s Minu 12 is it’s like, 12 inches, and runs Linux. The important things about Linux are:

• the free software
• customiziation: striping the software to the essentials of email, web and xterm.
• the lightweight XFCE desktop environment.

The Dell Mini 12 seems great, but Dell’s chat support tells me the keyboard is the same size the as the Mini 10. Now, they are offering a 9 inch for $200. Typing is just horrible on such small keybaords. That is why Apple uses a full size keyboard and 13 inch screen in the MacBook Air.

I’m still waiting for the 12 inch $300 laptop. At this price I don’t expect much: email, web browser X and xterm. Battery life can be great with suffiently low performance. The RadioShack netbook mentioned above boasts a six-hour battery! How many hours do you get from your laptop?

Looking for the Midori browser, Google turned up

• Midori a classical violinist
• Midori liqueur US world Wiki

Other intriguing stuff on the Internet.

• Truck Vs Macbook Pro
• space station named Colbert. At least it’s not Coltrane.
• Sad. LoJack for Toddlers

Just shows how expensive mobile broadband is. I keep hesitating on buying an iPhone because of the cell phone plan price. It’s $70, but that includes voice, with I’m presently paying $40 for. That’s leave data at $30, half the price offered with the Acer. However, I could half my current cell phone bill by switching to a no-contract phone.

RadioShack’s $100 NetBook Costs $1,500 Over Two Years

The plan costs $60 a month, which comes out to paying $1,540 over two years.

– Wired.com

Rumor, oft criticized, is Apple will introduce a $100 iPhone at Walmart. That’s so tempting. I beleive it, ‘cuase I want an iPhone, and it’s about time for a price drop. However, I think dropping the price and upgrading RAM, maybe some other specs, is more likely. I appreciate Wired’s sceptism of rumors Apple items. The Mac mini was an unlikely, but desired product. Now it exists. The iPod mini is another rebuttal to Wired’s article.

A $599 laptop? But to keep their profit, margin, and Apple will, it’s probably won’t support iLife and iWork. iLife, handling videos and pictures, is a natural resource hog that compels upgrades. Netbooks are less than $500, however, that’s too close to the price of a full function, discount, 15″ laptop. MY definition of a netbook tops at $300 and I only expect it to run email and a web browser at most. That will meet most people’s, needs and exceed mine. I also expect eight hours of battery life. With these specs, there will be no optical drive, probably no webcam. AND NO FLASH! Performance will be low, but email and browsing doesn’t need much. Look at the iPhone and PDAs. (Personally, I only need X, xterm, and VIM.) No one has done this in a 12″ laptop.

Expensive Gift Items

• Expensive mini-knife
• Expensive speakers for the geologist

Laptop prices hit the magic price point of $300.  There is a 15″ for $300.  it’s a Black Friday special, so it’s certainly not mainstream.  It’s also heavier than I want for an affordable light low performance laptop.

A friend bought a new laptop.  No knowing the color “Sangria Red,” I looked it up.

He expected

A stylish laptop:

He got Vista

Now that’s then, when a MacBook Air can slice bread.  Hope no one is so brazen to chop wood with it.

A Dell in contrast, would make pancakes.  See a Dell parody of the Apple ad.

Finally smaller and cheaper form factors.  Now if Cherry Pal will offer a laptop version.

I’ve been waiting for a cheaper laptop with full size keyboard and a lid filling.  The

EeePC has a lot of buzz for being compact and affordable.  However, I’ve seen 15″ Asus laptops for about the same price of the Eee.  I find the Eee unattractive.  The EeePC is just too small, and not incredibly cheaper.  The XO OLPC

laptop targeted $100, however, the US price in the Buy One, Give One was $400.  That’s targeting a totally different marget, but Palm PDAs and conventional laptops whose prices decend below $500 make the XO and Eee harder sells.

Even the iPhone, at $199 shows capable computer can be affordable.  iSuppli estimates the cost of materials in the iPhone 3G at $174.

Hear about Zonbu earlier.  Nice, but tied to a plan, and again, not enough cheaper than conventional computers.

The biggest obstacle to this market is the economy end of the product spectrum is difficult to profit in; margins are thin, customers price sensitive.  It’s especially hard to profit is cost-of-goods isn’t lower than the selling price.  OLPC assumed mass production would lower costs.  OLPC also lost focus, and the price crept up; scope creep.  Apple simply avoids this end of the market, selling premium products, like BMW and Porsche.  However, Apple is also good and keeping cost-of-goods below the price sold.