SOTEC ships Hello Kitty-themed netbook

Capitalizing on two trends at once, Japan's SOTEC today launched a Hello Kitty version of its C101 netbook. The 10-inch C101K3W has a custom imprint of Sanrio's signature character on the back as well as a startup screen and desktop background to match; SOTEC claims that its building process should keep the special outside free of scratches.

The system is otherwise near-identical to other high-end netbooks and ships with a 1.6GHz Atom chip, 1GB of memory, a 120GB hard disk and a 1.3-megapixel webcam. Windows XP is the only choice of operating system, and SOTEC estimates about 2.1 hours of battery life on the stock battery.

Shipments of the Hello Kitty system have already begun and will bring the mini portable to both SOTEC's own resellers as well as Sanrio's locations for the rough equivalent of $733 after taxes. Official exports aren't expected for the netbook. [via Impress]