Dell Ends Sales of Mini 12 Netbook

Dell will no longer sell the Mini 12 netbook. In a blog post, Dell states that the decision to end sales of the MIni 12 is due to customer demand.

Dell will continue to sell the Mini 10 and Mini 9 netbooks for the time being.
Lionel Menchaca, Dell’s chief blogger, explained the decision in a blog post:

It really boils down to this: for a lot of customers, 10-inch displays are the sweet spot for netbooks. That’s why we offer two different 10-inch Inspiron netbooks for Mini 10 and the Mini 10v. And on the Latitude side, the Latitude 2100 netbook is finding a home in schools all over the place.

The Mini 12 has very similar specs to the Mini 10, except it has a 12-inch display. In some instances, PC manufacturers are required to limit features if they want to utilize Windows XP and Intel Atom chips as to avoid cannibalizing sales of full-powered notebooks.

Those looking for a low-cost netbook with a display that measures more than 10-inches may want to consider Lenovo’s IdeaPad S12 ($449) or the ASUS Eee PC 1101HA ($429).

While 12-inch netbooks definitely stretch the definition of “netbook,” many users are willing to give up portability for a larger display and keyboard.