Lenovo gets into netbook market

Lenovo is launching a range of netbooks and has announced that the first two products, the IdeaPad S9 and S10, will be available in October.

The small computers use Intel's Atom processor and come with either 512MB or 1GB of RAM and either a 4GB flash hard drive or a 160GB platter drive. They come with Windows XP or Linux preloaded.

Liu Jun, senior vice president of consumer business group at Lenovo, said: " As rapidly as the technology changes, today’s consumers are looking for mobile products that feature the best of basic computing functions in an extremely compact and affordable form and Lenovo designed the IdeaPad netbooks for that purpose."

The S9 will come with an 8.9 inch screen and the S10 with a 10.2 inch screen, Wi-Fi is included as standard but Bluetooth is an optional extra. They are priced from $399.

Lenovo is joining an increasingly crowded market, with netbooks promised from Dell, Acer and Asus. Analysts seem convinced that the market for the cut-down laptops is set to explode, both from younger users and students as well as business sales to act as supplemental PCs.