Veteran tech analyst Roger Kay says that a rise in netbook prices will likely come as OEMs adjust to run Windows 7. "It's unlikely that Home Premium will be sold at the same price as XP Home Basic is now selling for netbooks. So, if the OEMs beef up the specs on the products a little, they could end up running 7 Home Premium, and the whole bill of materials will rise."

Yet if netbook prices continue the other way and keep dropping, Microsoft falls victim to the thrifty combination of Linux and ARM, which has said that 10 ARM-based netbooks are likely to hit stores by the end of this year. Says analyst Cherry: "If the price gap between Windows and Linux-based netbooks widens, buyers may stop caring about the operating system."

ARM has been candid about its , but so far Microsoft has refused to comment on any plans to port Windows to ARM-based processors.