COBY Plans MIDGET PC for $100 in March

Arkansas Indymedia is reporting that Coby Electronics, well-known (if not respected) for low-cost electronic gadgets sold through drugstores, discount stores, etc., plans to introduce the first under-$100 laptop in the USA, Midget PC, by March 2009.

The Midget PC will initially have a 7" screen, followed by a 9" model. These will be branded "PoqetMate-7" (pronounced pocket-mate) and "PoqetMate-9. Preproduction units appear to be about the same size as the Asus Eee PC 701.

The netbooks will most likely be manufactured in Coby's own factory in Foshan China and will use Loongson processors that are generally used in personal media players and handheld gadgets. The use of such processors indicate an embedded operating system as well.

Coby expects the $100 netbook market to be over 100 million units but doesn't expect to monopolize it as competitors are a given.

Coby's entry into the market, as well as the expected horde of competitors that will follow, are exactly the reasons why we think the real reason both Intel and AMD are antsy about the netbook market (Intel rethinks Netbooks - and why). They simply can't (or won't) compete in the low-end, low-margin market segment of netbooks. And not because this segment is incremental. At 100 million units, how can it be incremental?