Taiwan's Acer, which is the world's third-largest PC maker, said that its Q1 results included a 31% profit decline as the recession continued to hit PC sales and PC makers were taking advantage of selling more PCs at the same time.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) and the all-new and about-to-be-released Adamo slim laptop PC is just the latest in the computer maker's attempt to slam the PC industry with as much laptop PC variety as possible to help it gain consumer market share.

After years of not recognizing the shift towards the retail consumer space and the huge movement from desktop PCs to laptop PCs, Dell's efforts in the last year have been admirable. The competition has continued to outsmart it and grow more, but Dell's efforts to catch up to Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) and Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) have borne some decent fruit. Is it enough?

Dell's Q3 period in 2008 saw the company generate 32% of its revenue from mobility products, which means laptop PCs for both the business and consumer markets it serves globally. Dell's Jeremy Bolen indicated that the consumer movement towards laptop PCs helped Dell realize that it needed to be a bigger, faster player in the space.

That's pretty obvious, and the competitors that truly win are the ones that spot trends before they happen and get ahead of the curve in the direct or retail markets -- or both. Dell can't solve tomorrow's problems by the same level of thinking that created them (credit: Albert Einstein). It better roll out the innovation blanket across its company -- not just in products, but in strategy.

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is going to be testing new waters soon. Since trying to become a loss leader within consumer laptop PCs in the last year, the second-largest seller of PCs worldwide (for now) will be introducing a $99 netbook PC soon.

Netbooks are really just miniature laptops that feature lower power and lower performance specifications, but are ultimately portable. This new category of PCs was the hit of the last part of 2008, and many industry watchers consider the netbook category to be the hot growth prospect for PCs in 2009.

But a $99 offering? How is that possible? Well, it's based on the same principle as the cellular phone industry. Those who shell out $99 soon for a Dell Inspiron netbook PC will also be required to sign up for a two-year wireless data plan through AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) at a total cost of $350. So, in the end, they'll pay roughly $450 for that new Dell netbook.