Dell unveils new mini-laptop PCs

In order to drive up market share in those niche PC categories, Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is joining the fray of the miniature laptop PC with the new "E" and "E Slim." Wow, those are catchy names. Many manufacturers offer ultraportable mobile PCs designs, but many have also failed miserably. Now Dell wants to get in on the action of those who would love to purchase a high-margin, tiny laptop for all those internet tasks. These are dubbed "netbooks."

Dell joins fellow competitors Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) and Taiwan's Asus in making a tiny laptop PC that uses flash memory instead of an actual hard drive and comes with a display that is less than 10 inches measured diagonally (standard laptop screens are 15.4 inches). HP unveiled its miniature notebook just a month ago, so Dell did not waste a bit of time here. In addition to the "E," Dell's "E Slim" takes aim at the larger, ultra-thin laptop market made famous by Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) MacBook Air, and followed up with HP's recently announced Voodoo Envy.

What are all these manufacturers trying to do with all the slim-n-thin and tiny laptop designs? First of all, find some margin playroom now that the popular laptop PC category has seen shrunken retail prices as of late, although the Dell "E" will start at $299 when it debuts later this summer. Also, to continue finding those niches, there is pent-up demand. The "pocketable" laptop PC has been forever elusive, but some of these designs are getting very close to finding the perfect balance between usability and portability.