The excitement surrounding a no-frills computer made by an unknown Chinese manufacturer is mostly due to the potential of the technology underlying it.

Used in billions of cellphones today, ARM processors are less expensive and more energy-efficient than even Intel Corp.'s power-sipping Atom CPU.

Android, meanwhile, is fast-emerging as a popular flavor of Linux for smartphones such as Google's G1, attracting interest from software developers as quickly as Apple Inc.'s iPhone did.

Market experts predict that the combination of ARM and Android could help usher in an era of sub-$200 netbooks with 12-hour battery life and creative designs highly-tailored for different consumers.

It could also allow ARM/Android netbooks to wrest the netbook market from Intel's Atom chips and Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, which could weaken or break Microsoft and Intel's grip on the PC market.