Speaking at FiRe today, Michael Dell reiterated his recent comments about consumers' enchantment with netbooks being short-lived.

"There is some disenchantment that goes with the netbooks, and some user dissatisfaction. It goes something like this - you get a netbook and, you know, you look at it and you go, 'wow, this is great, it's so light, it's so small, it's so thin' blah blah blah. And after about 36 hours your screen's too small - 'give me my 14-inch screen back, give me my 15-inch screen back,'" he said. "So we found in business, if you give a user who is used to the larger screen that small screen, they're not very happy."

Dell said buyers will be even less enamored of the mini-laptops after using them with Windows 7 and Office 2010 - not necessarily because of performance but because the design and appearance of the new software will make users want computers with bigger screens.

"We've been getting pretty excited about Windows 7, Office 2010," he said. "If you look at those products - they kind of tell you you want more screen area, not less screen area. If you put that on a netbook, you won't be real happy with it."