Brad Linder of Liliputing has an article up today about the lack of Dell Netbooks on the US site. After a follow-up by Joanna Stern of The Verge, Dell has now confirmed it is dropping netbooks and, apparently, any development of notebooks on the Cedar Trail platform. The focus in 2011, according to the Dell spokesperson, is ‘Thin and Light.’
I have two thoughts. Number 1 is that the Cedar Trail platform doesn’t exactly equate to netbooks and I think there’s space for 11.6” ultralights on that platform. They would offer reasonable CPU power and with an SSD and a redesign have every chance of riding on the coat-tails of Ultrabooks to offer a very cheap and stylish thin and light solution.
The second thought, of course, is when are the Dell Ultrabooks coming?
We had expected a Dell Ultrabook at IDF in Sept but it wasn’t the case so with 30-50 Ultrabooks showing up at CES it’s a fair bet that Dell is amongst them.
Our bet is that they will take that discontinued Adamo XPS 13 and re-design it around Sandy Bridge and if Dell are so confident and thin being in, we would even put money on a range of Utrabooks. 11.6, 13.3, 14 an even 15”
Whatever happens, we’ll be at CES to report it so stay with us.
Yeah, it’s unfortunate the Dell is out of the picture. I guess they’re waiting for Ivy Bridge…