Intel says netbooks should cost no more than $400

Intel continues to try and set clear boundaries as to exactly how one defines a netbook. If they are not trying to tell you that netbooks are not meant for adults and not capable of multitasking, creating videos and encode music, they are trying to define exactly how much one should cost.

Intel is suggesting that a netbook should cost no more than $400 according to Fudzilla. This is $100 more than the price they suggested last year. Anything over $400 they feel belongs to notebooks which, theoretically, are more powerful and sport bigger displays as well as higher prices.

I’m not sure why Intel is bothering trying to pin-down exactly what defines a netbook. Obviously, the company does not want to cannibalise its higher priced chips with the lower-margin Atom processors, but it’s no point trying to pin-point its definition, when a number of products straddle categories. After all, there are numerous netbooks that cost over $400) and also a number of netbooks that are now starting to support higher display sizes (like the Lenovo Ideapad S12, MSI Wind U200 and Acer Aspire One 751).

Just in case you were wondering, once you move past that $400 mark, Intel suggests that you go for a regular notebook ($399 – $1500) or ultra-thin CULV model ($499 – $1300). I’m sure no one will pay much notice to this, but Intel will continue try to explicitly define the ultraportable segment.