The netbook, or low-cost laptop, was inspired by a scheme to produce cheap laptops for children in poor countries, but has since proved popular with consumers around the world.
Asus, a Taiwanese manufacturer that popularised ultra-cheap "netbook" laptops, is expected to launch a cut-price e-reader.
This is a grand selection, ranging from Kodak's Zx1 Pocket Video Camera and the HP Mini 1000 MI Edition netbook to the T-Mobile G1 phone and the Kindle 2.
The extra hardware and software costs start to push the price of a netbook towards that of a standard laptop, which will invariably be better because it has a bigger processor and superior graphics.
A no-frills laptop sells at 15,000 rupees ($280); a netbook on the other hand is a third cheaper.
But although his engineers have so far only managed to get the cost of their elegant laptop down to about $150, they have shown what is possible with a low-cost design, and helped create today's vibrant netbook market.
For many users, the basic, free software shipped with a netbook will be quite enough.The most basic model of the Acer Aspire One can be found for £179 in Britain and around $300 in America.
Suddenly there is much more interest in products that apply the flip side of Moore's law: instead of providing ever-increasing performance at a particular price, they provide a particular level of performance at an ever-lower price.The most visible manifestation of this trend is the rise of the netbook, or small, low-cost laptop.
Just as the One Laptop Per Child scheme helped bring into being the low-cost laptop, or netbook, so Pixel Qi could prompt the LCD industry to switch its focus to developing new products suitable for use in e-readers.
Much advice on offer online suggests souping up the specification of a netbook so it can run Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, rather than the free, open-source Linux system that is offered as standard on many netbooks.Yet increasing the specification only makes sense for people who want to run (and to pay for) Windows and specific Windows-based applications.
But the Unity interface seems to have been designed largely for the squat, ten-inch format of netbook screens today.For instance, instead of running across the bottom (or top) of the screen, the docking panel (task bar) has been moved to the left-hand edge to conserve valuable vertical space so as much of a web page as possible can be viewed without having to scroll down.
