It seems that Dell is dropping its first-gen Mini 9 netbook from the line-up, with the Mini 12 also for the chop due to Microsoft’s netbook restrictions for Windows 7...
Eight months after a generally well-received debut, it appears that Dell’s first netbook is about to exit stage left. The Inspiron Mini 9 disappeared from Dell’s US Web site at the close of business on Friday, US time.
The Mini 9 has gone MIA from Dell's US site, leaving the 10.1 inch Mini 10v as Dell's entry-level netbook
It also went missing in action from Dell’s sites in the UK and several European countries, although as of this weekend it remains listed on Dell.com.au (as well as the company’s online stores in Singapore and Japan). But the coming week may also see the axe fall on Dell’s littlest laptop, in keeping with the timeline on Dell’s netbook roadmap as leaked to German Web site netbooknews.de and
previously reported on by APCmag.
This leaked roadmap indicates that the Mini 9 has reached its use-by-date, and the Mini 12 may soon follow...
The chart indicates Dell’s plan for the Mini 9 (which as you can see was codenamed for diminutive female Chinese table tennis player Qiao Hong) to disappear at the end of May, which is of course exactly where we are now. Dell’s replacement as its entry-level netbook is the Mini 10v, a budget-priced variant of the Mini 10.
The Mini 9 was Dell's first netbook and was generally well-received, despite compromises with the keyboard
Dell doesn’t yet offer the Mini 10v in Australia, but in the US it sells for US$50 cheaper than the US$349 Mini 10. The key differences are that the Mini 10v kicks off with a 120GB hard drive compared to the Mini 10’s fatter 160GB platter, and the Mini 10v doesn’t have options for adding the internal 3G card or digital TV tuner, nor upgrading the screen to 1366 x 768 HD. The 10v also uses Intel’s Atom N270 Diamondville powerplant rather than chips from the Mini 10’s Silverthorne Z500-series.
The Mini 10v now slots in as Dell's cheapest netbook – it's identical to the Mini 10 but starts at a lower spec
(It’s worth noting that in the notoriously price-sensitive US market neither the Mini 10 or 10v come with Bluetooth or 802.11n wireless – they cost an extra $25 apiece – while the local Mini 10 packs both as standard. Likewise, the US Mini 10 starts with the 1.3GHz Atom Z520 processor and charges an extra US$50 to upgrade to the 1.6GHz Z520, which is standard spec on Dell’s Aussie version of the Mini 10).
While Dell’s local online store still lists the Mini 9 at $599,
Harris Technology has them marked down to $499 and flagged as a ‘clearance’ sale.
A further sign of impending doom for Dell's littlest laptop: Harris Technology lists it as a clearance item
The Mini 10 has been fluctuating between $599 and $699 for the past few days (indeed, sometimes in the space of hours on the same day), but if Dell is to introduce the Mini 10v to the local market as a replacement for the entry-level Mini 9 we’d expect the 10v would sell for $549-$599 depending on where the price of the Mini 10 settles.
However, the Mini 9 may not disappear completely from view: it could remain as a contracted telco-only offering bundled with 3G mobile broadband. This is something that Dell pioneered in Australia with its
Vodafone tie-up for the Mini 9, and which would provide competition against Samsung’s intent to offer its
NC10 netbook as a similar telco-exclusive 3G model.
There’s also the possibility that Dell could rework the Mini 9 as the foundation for an Android-powered netbook, as we
suggested earlier this month.
Mini 12 to go MIA?
The same timeline which indicates the Mini 9 has hit its use-by date shows the Mini 12 slated to follow the Mini 9 into netbook neverland at the end of June.
If that’s how things play out, Dell’s netbook line looks to be reduced to just two models, both with a 10.1 inch screen – the Mini 10 and 10v. These just squeeze under Microsoft’s limbo-bar of a
10.2 inch screen in order to quality for a cheap OEM licence for Windows 7 Starter edition.
Under Microsoft's revised hardware spec for Windows 7 netbooks, the super-sized Mini 12 is too big for its own good
While the Mini 12’s larger screen is kosher according to Microsoft’s netbook guidelines for a discount XP licence (the current rate for which is said to be around US$15), under the revised Windows 7 hardware hit-list Dell would have to pay the full OEM price for Windows 7 Home or Premium editions.
Instead, it’s expected Dell will use this opportunity to deep-six the Mini 12 in favour of the as-yet-unconfirmed
Mini 11 ‘Argos’ – a low-cost ‘thin and light’ notebook built around Intel’s new ULV platform along the same lines as the Acer
Aspire Timeline and Lenovo’s
IdeaPad U350.