This might be worth talking about as the mobile computing segment gets crowded with tablets and the pricing of devices is paramount. If you didn’t know, the thinnest Asus netbook the Asus X101 is out. As the Asus engineers suggested the only way to get the netbook that thin was to remove some things. As it turns out that thing was the VGA port. Big deal, that’s my opinion. VGA port? Who needs it? Who actually uses it? The fact is it’s about as useful as the Kensignton lock. Standard issue but no real life value.

So this has me thinking. What features would you remove from a netbook to drop the price of it? I would strongly suggest that storage is one way the netbook manufacturers can provide great deals. Again back to this new Asus netbook the X101 which comes in at $199 and has 8GB SSD storage only. With the cheap price of SD cards and USB thumb drives, the need to onboard storage is less important than price. In other words I think a lot of consumer could live just fine withe 8GB storage if that meant shaving some price off the netbook.

I think battery is a bad way to provide better netbook deals. Long battery life is what most people put in the wish list and paying less for a smaller battery seems counter productive in my mind. Leave battery size alone. Save money elsewhere please Mr. Netbook Manufacturer!

I think the other feature which isn’t needed are multiple USB ports. How many you going to use. I’m hard pressed to use more than 1 to be honest. So for me, 1 USB is fine if that meant a better netbook deal. I may be alone on that one, but if you currently own a netbook, how many times have you used 2 USB ports at the same time?

We’ve seen a real trend towards sub $300 netbook deals. This will become more and more common in the months ahead into late 2011. We say buying a netbook, you are getting netbook deals without even thinking about it. How so?

Buy a tablet and you’re paying at least $400, but then you need a fancy case. Want a keyboard? You’re looking at paying more than $500 easily. Compare that to netbook deals. Actually just look at any netbook and it looks like  a deal. That’s the point I’m making. It’s the point that a lot of blog and websites are overlooking in their admiration of tablets.

Netbooks are great deals. There is no other way to slice it. You’re often better buying a $114 Kindle ebook reader and that $300 netbook because you’re going to pay less for that combo than a tablet. To me, that’s a great deal. Agree?

So the question I have today is, how low will they go? You want cheap netbooks and I think the market is about to deliver. Here is what I’ve noticed.

Last couple of weeks I’ve seen the popular Toshiba netbook on Amazon.com under $300. Typically a Toshiba netbook isn’t thought of as one of the cheap netbooks. Afterall, isn’t Toshiba America’s favorite brand? At times I think so.

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It has taken a little while for us, but we’re now getting into the netbook deals in a big way. This will be an updated offering from us whenever we come across great netbook deals. As the tablets come to market you will see more and more netbook deals. We want to help you buy the best netbook for the cheapest possible price.

So if you’re looking for netbook deals, we hope you check back on a regular basis!