Is this your favorite time of year?

It’s always interesting to me that right after Christmas, the consumer electronics makers roll out their next generation models.  While this is great for your inner nerd, it may not be so great if you just dropped a wad of cash on electronics over the holidays.  It’s almost insulting.

hpmini2140Smart buyers are used to this cycle and know just after CES the retailers will start discounting and clearing their inventory of high def TV’s in anticipation of the new model arrivals this summer.  Heck, CES hasn’t even started and have you seen the sheer number of announcements in the past 48 hours?  Mind boggling.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Robbie Bach (President of our Entertainment and Devices Division) are keynoting CES 2009 tomorrow night so I would imagine they’ll have a few things up their sleeve as well.

While we’re on the subject, any of you buying the new small form factor notebooks/netbooks like the HP 2140 pictured at right?

It seems there is a huge push by all of the OEMs to add all sorts of small laptops.  Dell has the Inspiron Mini.  Lenovo has the IdeaPad S Series.  HP has the Mini series or machines as well.  And lets not forget the ASUS Eee PC

I have to wonder how these devices are selling.  If I was still in college I have no doubt I would be using a smaller machine than what I typically use now.  I think a 13” or 14” screen is about right.  Not too small and not to big and heavy either.  But 7, 8, 10 or 12 inches?  How many hours would you want to use a screen like that?