Digital Home Thoughts: Dell Unveils the Inspiron 2100 Netbook for Education Markets

"You may have seen some speculation that we would launch a new Dell netbook in time for the back-to-school season. Starting today, customers in the Americas and Europe can order the sub-three pound Latitude 2100 netbook at a starting price of $369. These netbooks will be available in Asia and the Pacific in the next few days. Latitude 2100 netbooks come in five fun primary colors: School Bus Gold, Chalkboard Black, Ball Field Green, Blue Ribbon and Schoolhouse Red. To see pictures of these colors and more, take a look at this Flickr set on our Dell page. We'll offer with several operating system options, including Ubuntu 8.10, Windows XP Home or Vista Home Basic."

Dell was late to the netbook party, but I've got to hand it to them, they're making up for it in spades. They're rapidly adding new features to the Inspiron Mini 10 (HD screen resolution, 6-cell batteries, etc.) and now they've released a whole new produt to take netbooks into a new market: the Inspiron 2100. I really like the design of these netbooks - quite unique compared to many other netbooks out there today. Unfortunately they're only available for purchase in the US right now, and I think only if you're part of an educational institution. Beyond the unique design, they have options such as touch-screens and 250 GB hard drives that no other netbook offers today. After the break there's a YouTube video that shows the cart that teachers use to deploy the netbooks in the classroom - what I find extremely slick is that when students slide the netbooks back into the cart, it recharges them and IT professionals can then manage the netbooks all at once because they're also networked via the cart. Slick!