Your company laptop may soon be a whole lot lighter.

Coming up this year, Intel is rolling out a new line of microprocessors called “ATOM” which are geared to a new kind of notebook computers. The systems (being called “netbooks” or “nettops”) will have just enough processing power to drive an operating system, basic applications, and a search engine.

It was the iPhone’s huge success that has opened the business market to these new solutiona. Originally, the biggest impact was expected in education sectors and emerging markets. Now Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini sees a good portion of the expected $10 billion market going to corporate customers from small businesses to large enterprise solutions as a “companion device”.

Somewhat akin to a big ‘ol PDA. Except without the cool touchscreen and ability to make calls.

Prices are anticipated to initially run between $250 and $300.

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