Sony to Join the Mini-Note Market?

Way before all these new mini-notes sprung like mushrooms, CNET reported on Sony‘s reluctance to join the low-cost notebook market. ” …don’t expect Sony to get into the low-end laptop race any time soon,” the Sony spokesman said. But if reports are to be believed, it seems that Sony is getting to swim right in using the VIA OpenBook Mini-Note Reference.

At Computex in Taiwan, Quanta Computer (a contract manufacturer), showcased a product using the VIA OpenBook which lists (guess who) Sony as the manufacturer. The VIA OpenBook was created for companies that want to utilize VIA’s 1.6-Gigahertz C7-M processor. It has an 8.9-inch form factor with a 1,024 x 600 pixels resolution and an 80 GB HDD. According to PCWorld, the Sony-branded prototype Quanta showed has WiMax, 1GB memory, 60GB HDD, and runs on Windows Vista Home Basic. Sony reportedly refused to comment about the matter, but it’s just a matter of time before somebody spills the beans.

PCWorld via CNET