Dell aims to ride China's still strong growth in cellular, striking a deal with China Mobile Communications Corp. to sell versions of the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook with built-in 3G wireless. China Mobile claimed it had more than 470 million subscribers at the end of February 2009, and added 16 million so far this year. The carrier gained 66 million new subscribers in the first nine months of 2008 when it reported revenue of about US$44 billion.

China now has more Internet users than any other nation, about 298 million, according to the China Internet Network Information Center which does a Web user survey every six month commissioned by the China government. The latest survey said most users in China access the Net from home (78.4 percent) or Internet cafes (42.4 percent) rather than the office (20.7 percent). Desktop PCs are most often used to get on the Net (88.4 percent), followed by mobile phones and laptops, the report said.

Relatively low cost netbooks are expected to grow rapidly in China as a new way to get on the Web. Interestingly, the Dell systems actually list at a higher price in China (about US$568) than they do in the U.S. (about $449).

Dell has experimented with hybrid notebooks using a so-called Blacktop module, but so far it has not indicated any plans to build an emerging class of lower cost ARM/Linux-based portables. The systems sold by China Mobile all use Intel's Atom and Microsoft Windows XP.

For its part, rival HP Thursday (April 16) rolled out a new line of thin-client computers, aimed as low cost desktop replacements for business users.

The HP lineup includes seven systems based on x86 CPUs from Taiwan's Via Technologies Inc., two using the C7 and five using versions of Eden. Five systems use either AMD Turion or Sempron CPUs and just one uses an Intel Celeron.

HP has been using Via processors on thin clients for a few years. It also uses a Via CPU in its HP 2133 netbook announced in 2008.

The new thin clients range widely in price from a $199 unit using a 500 MHz Via Eden to $800+ laptop models using the AMD processors. Most range in the $300-$450 area. They use a variety of Windows XP, Windows Embedded and CE operating systems.

Earlier this month, startup Teradici Corp. announced it closed a $17 million series C funding round to help market its thin client chips and develop a new offering for consumers and small businesses. Telus, a large Canadian carrier participated in the funding and a Telus executive joined the Teradici board.