Hewlett-Packard and Acer have lowered prices of their netbooks as the back-to-school sales season kicks into gear in the U.S., offering bargains for users. Acer slashed prices on its Aspire one netbooks on Friday to as low as US$329 for one version, while HP revealed new prices for Mini-Notes on its Web site.
Price-cutting by the two big PC vendors could prompt other netbook makers, such as Asustek Computer and Micro-Star International to follow. Netbooks are mini-laptop PCs designed for mobility, and typically weighing less than 2 kilograms. Most of the components on board, including the microprocessor, are less powerful than those of full-fledged laptops so batteries last longer. They"re designed for Internet surfing and work on spreadsheets or word processor documents, not for heavy duty gaming, video editing or other multimedia work.