New screens, $200 prices could boost netbooks as e-readers. Plus, tablet capabilities from Asus in March

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By David Rothman

Some critics gripe that netbook batteries run out of juice too soon for the little laptops to be useful for e-book reading.

But could low-power displays from PixelQi change the game and offer battery-life gains of up to 50 percent? And maybe give you better image quality, too?

Meanwhile, from Digitimes, GadgetMix and Engadget, there’s talk of lower netbook prices, in the $200 range. Already you might be able to grab an Asus Eee PC 900 16GB Pearl white netbook on sale for $200. (Important update: See reader comment on the seller of the PC 900. Without making accusations, I would advise you to be careful.)

So what’s next? Extra-affordable tablets? Or at least tablet-convertible tablets like the existing OLPC XO-1—a good form factor for e-reading? Touch screens of course could help.

No problem, on the touch and tablet fronts at least! Stay tuned for the Asus Eee PC T91 netbooks, reportedly available in March. It’ll sell for $500 with a touch screen and tablet conversion capabilities. Check out an Engadget video of the T91, shown in the image to the left. Also see JK’s comments.

Related: Netbooks, smart phones: Will the twain meet?, from EETimes.com.

(PixelQI piece spotted via Tweet from Mike Cane.)

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