HP clearing out Mini-Notes?

HP is aggressively discounting its Mini-Note PCs in what may be an attempt to clear stock for upgrades, a new promo would suggest. The VIA-based netbook, which officially launched at $499, is now selling for as little as $399 in its basic configuration of a 1GHz C7-M, 512MB of memory, and a 4GB flash drive pre-loaded with SuSE Linux; other discounts are more dramatic and range up to a $779 model (normally $1,064) with a 1.6GHz chip, 2GB of memory, a 120GB hard drive and Windows Vista Business.

It's not known what has prompted the discounts, which will come to a halt by the end of October. HP has recently shown a 10-inch netbook concept understood to be a likely hint at a future complement or replacement for today's 8.9-inch Mini-Note; that same larger portable has also been rumored for an October launch and may switch to the VIA Nano processor for better performance at the same time. [via jkOnTheRun]

Filed under: computers
Other story tags: Linux, Vista, HP, via, Mini-Note, SuSE