Posted on 05/04/2010 3:20:01 PM PDT by Willie Green
For the last few years I’ve been seeing cheap netbooks make appearances at trade shows. They typically have tiny keyboards, 7 inch displays, ARM-based processors and either Windows CE or Linux. They’re not for everyone. But they are dirt cheap.
The only problem is that most of these mini-laptops aren’t available to the general public in the US. The ones I see at trade shows are OEM products that Chinese manufacturers are trying to market to international distributors.
Well, a company called ITA Computers is taking them up on the offer and selling a 7 inch mini-laptop for just $98. You can order one at the cleverly-titled 98dollarnetbook.com web site. Here’s what you can get for less than $100:
Sure, the $98 isn’t all that impressive in the specs department. But what did you expect? It only costs $98!
Interestingly, the folks at ITA tell me that these netbooks come from the same OEM as the Delstar netbook that K-Mart was selling for $120 during Black Friday.
I wonder if you bought a few, you could put together a pretty nice cheap little server farm.
Considering the OS and processor, an iPod touch would be far more useful and more responsive.
The 300mhz ARM chip is really, really slow and Windows CE is a mobile platform for PDAs and phones. Software is going to be a real limit.
What is Windows CE 6.0 I’ve never heard of it? I’d be interested if they have a usb port and could run software that runs on XP?
/johnny
A 7 inch screen is very small. It might be ok for a person on a tight budget and young eyes.
I wonder if an old laptop remade into a Linux machine would be a better deal. But finding one for $98 might be a challenge.
I wouldn’t pay $10 for it.
The Ipod touch is gonna cost ya twice (and more) the price of this netbook, and the touch has a tiny screen and no keyboard. Why would someone who is in the market for a very, very cheap netbook, buy the iPod touch instead of this $98 dollar netbooks?
“The 300mhz ARM chip is really, really slow and Windows CE is a mobile platform for PDAs and phones. “
The 300 Mhz ARM chip is just fine for Windows CE.
Will it work for surfing Free Republic?
Win CE has been around for quite a while.
CE 6 came out in 2006.
I’d be interested if they have a usb port
Read the specs above. It has
•I/O: 3 USB ports, SDHC card slot, mic, headphone jacks
“and could run software that runs on XP?”
No.
It's essentially a cheap netbook for surfing the internet, reading emails, posting on FR etc etc, not for running your MS Office.
Yes.
See my post # 11.
I’m in the market for a netbook. It sounds like a good deal to me.
I not interested in downloading music, videos or uploading them. I just want to surf the net at a public place and watch a video now and then.
Interesting. If it wouldn’t be too slow, might be a nice bargin.
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