"You can't say this is going to make netbooks more expensive or cheaper, but you can definitely say this will make netbooks lighter, thinner and higher performing," Beard said.

"The cool thing is the netbook can be optimized around SSD. The netbook may be using an Atom processor [from Intel Corp.], which is slower than a mainstream notebook processor, but with an SSD it may make up some of that performance."

While SSDs are far less expensive to produce than hard disk drives, flash NAND memory prices have hampered adoption of SSDs, particularly at the higher capacity level -- 64GB or more. "Capacities of 64GB [SSDs] are way too expensive compared to 160GB HDD price points," Unsworth said.

But as SSD capacity drops, it becomes far more competitive with hard disks, which have a fixed manufacturing price point.

"You can buy a $50 HDD with 120GB of storage. A 120GB SSD will set you back around $250-plus. You can buy $30 worth of flash, though -- as long as 16GB is enough for your needs," said Jim Handy, an analyst with Objective Analysis Inc.