With a hot product such as netbook, it is understable that once a rumor surfaced, expect the whole tech kingdom to feast on it, spin it and of course make a good tech story out of it. Such as the case of a recent sightings of a Sony brand-bearing “netbook” which was spotted at the FCC site.

No less than everybody’s favorite gadget blog, Engadget gave a crack on the leaked photos. According to Engadget the size of the netbook could be in the range of 9.5 x 4.5. This could certainly pass up for a good 10-inch netbook. And the most exciting part is that it bears the Sony branding.

The photo also indicated a blank spot which could be a Windows logo. So, if this netbook is true, we should expect that it will be powered by the Windows XP.

No other details were published yet for the “Sony Netbook” product.

Via

Rumors of Sony’s netbook started as early as during the WiMAX event where a VIA netbook was spotted with Sony listed as the manufacturer. But after the WiMAX event nothing much has been heard about it from Sony, until recently. Laptop Mag was able to talk to Sony’s Senior Vice President of Information Technology Products, Mike Abary, during a Sony event in New York City.

When Laptop Mag threw the question of whether Sony is planning to enter the netbook market, Mr. Abary neither confirmed nor deny, but instead replied “stay tuned”. Mr. Abary said that Sony is still letting the pioneers in the market to make mistakes before they possibly participate in the ongoing fad on netbooks.

Other than this, nothing much has been revealed by the Sony VP. We’re probably looking into a possible release of this netbook (if Sony is preparing something) early next year.

But should Sony release their own netbook, hopefully they could also come out with a competitive price. Sony’s VAIO notebook series are known for their not-so friendly price. So, it would be interesting how Sony can produce something as affordable as most netbooks today. That’s their only chance to have a successful entry into this growing market anyway.

Digitimes is citing a report by China’s Economic Daily News saying that Sony is planning to manufacture its own low-cost netbook. According to the report, Foxconn Electronics might provide some components of Sony’s netbook and will not be producing the entire product.

Sony’s rumored netbook has been spotted as early as during the WiMax expo earlier this year where an 8.9-inch notebook by Quanta touting VIA’s OpenBook reference platform were accidentally leaked. The notebook listed Sony as the manufacturer.

With the growing popularity of low-cost notebooks today, it is not surprising that Sony would come out with its own netbook. After all, Sony Vaios are one of the most expensive notebook PCs we have in the market. If Sony would indeed come out with its own netbook bearing the VAIO product line, we’re pretty sure it will be a pretty big hit. And it will be a welcome addition to the current crop of netbooks produced by major PC manufacturers including Asus, HP, Acer and MSI.

Things are really getting pretty exciting in the netbook market. After this year is through and the trend in the netbook market continues to surge, we could definitely say that 2008 is the year of the low-cost netbook.

Via [Electronista]