Dude, you're not getting a Dell netbook.
Dell, the Texas-based computer manufacturing giant, is no longer offering its Dell Mini netbook for sale. The website MyDellMini.com found that the Dell Mini had been pulled from the Dell website, and a Dell spokesperson confirmed that the company was getting out of the netbook business in a statement to tech website The Verge.
This is the second large-scale product discontinuation for Dell this month, as the company also ended its Dell Streak 7 tablet earlier in December. MyDellMini.com, which is "the largest dedicated Dell Mini and Dell Streak forum," would appear to be going through an existential crisis about now.
In her statement to The Verge, Dell Marketing Director Alison Gardner said of the company's future plans that "[t]hin and powerful is where it's at for us." This is widely interpreted as a nod to the company's future plans for ultrabooks, the super-thin PC notebooks that competitors Asus, Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba already have on the market. Dell has not yet announced their ultrabook model but are expected to do so in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The Dell Mini led a short though prolific life. Launched in September 2008, the Dell Mini 9 was a $350 machine running Ubuntu (or, for $450, Windows XP), available in many different colors and released at the time of the great netbook boom. The Mini 9 was followed by the Mini 9, the Mini 10 series and the Mini 12 series, all of which have now been confined to the dustbin of technological history as Dell shifts its lightweight computing focus from netbooks to ultrabooks.
Still want to grab a Dell Mini for yourself? Never fear: There are plenty for sale at non-Dell outlets all over the Internet.