Call it the Netbook halo effect: small and cheap is infectious. A quick peek at the lineups of new laptops slated for an October 22 rollout from Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba make it clear that laptop prices are diving, even as the technology gets better.
"There's a new reality in laptop pricing," said Bob O'Donnell, an analyst at market-researcher IDC. "It's getting harder and harder to sell anything over $800." O'Donnell cited a data point that showed notebooks falling below desktops briefly in retail. "That may have been an anomaly but the fact that's it's even close is indicative of this phenomenon."
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