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While many netbook makers including HP, Asus, MSI, and Lenovo have been offering machines with 10 inch screens which tend to come with larger keyboards than 8.9 inch models, Acer and Dell have pretty consistently stuck to the 9 inch form factor. But that could change early next year when Acer is expected to introduce a netbook with a 10 inch display.

DigiTimes reports that the new model could be available as soon as February or March. Acer is not phasing out the version of the Aspire One laptop with an 8.9 inch screen, but the company will continue to lower the price on that model through the end of this year, with prices set to drop by about 10% in the Taiwanese market.

Overall, I think this is a smart move for two reasons. First, I don’t think you can go wrong by offering customers a choice of screen sizes and other features. And second, while the earliest netbooks with 7 inch screens were really far too small for many users, many machines with 8.9 inch screens are barely any larger. While some people are going to have no trouble touch typing on an Aspire One or similar netbook with an 8.9 inch display, there are probably some folks who won’t buy anything smaller than 10 inches.

via Eee PC .net