A recent report by the New York Times states that PC makers are shaking in their boots because other manufacturers (like Asus) have proven that yes, you can deliver a usable low-cost low-power notebook to the market that people will actually buy (like the EeePC).

Right now is not a good time for PC makers because it seems that no matter how much they drop their prices, people don't seem to be buying these days.

I can totally understand why. When you see an EeePC for $300 and fast realize it can do just about everything you need, why would anyone want a $500+ desktop?

The answer to this is for the industry to offer a low-cost "net-top" PC. It would cost roughly the same as the notebook version (around $300). This computer would have no optical drive, a solid state disk and a few USB ports to plug in whatever you need to.

Some would say "Isn't that what a Mac mini is?" Not exactly; it doesn't use SSD and has an optical drive. And it's $600. We're talking about next-gen low-power/low-cost units here.

We could finally see the advent of the "silent brick" PC, which is what the net-top would be. A small out-of-the-way box about the size of a novel and at a price point that would have most people say "Yeah, I could use one of those."

Watch for it.