Here come the 12 inch netbooks

Two rival netbook makers, Acer and Asus, are readying 11.6-inch models, joining a class of larger netbooks established by Dell’s Inspiron Mini 12.

Acer’s Aspire One 751 was announced last month, but official specs and pictures have surfaced more recently. The screen runs at WXGA 1366 x 768 resolution, and the larger size, in addition to being easier on the eyes, makes room for a bigger keyboard as well. It will measure less than an inch thick and sports the usual netbook specs: An Intel Atom Z530 processor, up to 2 GB of RAM, optional Bluetooth and 3G and either a 3-cell or 6-cell battery, with 8 hours of life from the latter.

Today — perhaps as a counterattack — Asustek president Jerry Shen announced that the company will ship an 11.6-inch Eee PC this month. Shen didn’t elaborate further, according to Digitimes’ report, except to say that the larger model would comprise 30 percent of Asus’s netbook shipments.

With the Aspire One coming in just 1.6 inches smaller than a full-fledged Acer Aspire Timeline notebook, I wonder if we’re approaching a line in the sand. The "netbook" moniker, sort of silly to begin with, will only depreciate in meaning as these computers further resemble their larger counterparts.

There’s also price to consider. The Aspire One will cost £349, translating to about $520, but it’s not clear whether that price is the floor or the ceiling. If a fully souped-up netbook with a decent-sized screen costs well over $600, is it no longer a netbook at all?