Dell used to be the number 1 global supplier of computers. Then the shift happened away from desktops to notebooks and there was a changing of the guard to HP. Since then Dell has taken a lot of steps to return back to their glory days. Their computers are now available in thousands of stores across the country when before you could only get a Dell from Dell.

They are also making some waves with their line of netbooks. They still have a tremendous amount of scale and have been receiving a lot of buzz for their Dell Mini 9 and 12 netbooks. The reality is that netbooks don’t make Dell a lot of money. They have low price points and Dell would likely benefit from trying to sell them primarily to schools. Unfortunately with the economy the way it currently is, being able to find a school to spend a million dollars on low-cost computers isn’t as easy as it used to be.

This explains why Dell would have a love-hate relationship with this new category of light notebooks. Alleyinsider.com quotes Micheal Dell as saying:

We weren’t diving into that in a big way. We certainly have products there. It appears to us that this is mostly a complementary product category. Certainly in the emerging countries, it looks like it’s incremental, and kind of new business.

Acer and Asus are using netbooks to bully their way onto store shelves and Dell is barely taking them seriously. This all seem like when no one wanted to make cheap, fuel efficient cars and a company named Hyundai started filling that space and over the years is now preparing to pass Ford in auto sales.

1. The Real Reason Dell Stopped Selling The Mini 9

2. Wall Street Wishes Dell Would Buy Acer

3. Samsung To Ship More Netbooks Than Asus; Prove It’s About Quantity Not Quality

4. Verizon Will Be Selling Netbooks Through Stores

5. The Real Threat To Netbook Sales: Refurbished Laptops