SiliconBeat

Will “netbooks” turn out to be the PC industry’s silver bullet, or is it just a slow news week? Either way, there have been some interesting developments concerning the down-sized laptops that a number of PC-makers began selling last year.

Yesterday, we had Hewlett-Packard confirming that it’s reviewing the capabilities of Google’s Android operating system. HP wouldn’t say what for. But if the world’s largest computer-maker decides to adopt technology from the world’s biggest Internet company, some believe it’s likely to appear in some of those low-powered mini-notebooks that are mostly used for surfing the Web.

Meanwhile, a market research firm reported today that it expects netbook sales will grow 65 percent this year, while sales of traditional laptops grow just 3 percent.

“With the economic crisis on everyone’s minds, many buyers are adjusting their discretionary spending and purchasing mini-notes as lower-priced alternatives to notebook PCs,” according to a statement from DisplaySearch, a unit of the NPD Group.

And then there’s the announcement by AT&T, which will sell mini-laptops from Acer for just $49 in a trial program, currently offered only in Atlanta, provided that customers sign a two-year contract for both mobile and home Internet service.

Other telcos have begun offering discounted netbooks to subscribers, in the same way that they sell  mobile phones. But the AT&T program actually charges less for the computer than for the service contract, which will cost $60 or more per month.

What’s left? Some people are waiting for Apple to build its own netbook, but it hasn’t happened yet.