Next gen Atom netbooks to ship in January

New Atom n450 netbooks should start showing up in quantity next month.  Manufacturers have already dropped prices of the last gen product.  Savvy tightwads may want to hold out until the new product shows up on store shelves. Remaining stock of last gen should be at rock bottom then.

Asustek, Acer, Lenovo and even MSI planned to launch shedloads of Atom based netbooks in December in time for Santa to drop them in stockings hung by the chimney with care.

However now they have all announced that they will launch their Atom N450 based netbooks on January 11 of next year.

The reason seems to be a stiffly worked letter that has shown up on their CEO’s desks from Intel, which apparently does not want to see its glorious Atom N450 chips in the shops until after January 10. (The Inquirer)