The ruthlessly competitive netbook PC market has a new addition - Sony Corp! Marking its somewhat late foray into the netbook arena, Sony Tuesday unveiled its first netbook, thereby making an understated recognition of the fact that the economical mini-notebooks are ruling the roost.

Sony’s small new laptop, scheduled for an August launch, is the Vaio W – an addition to the company’s Vaio line of computers. Nearly the size of a hardback book, the new Sony netbook is equipped with the regular 10-inch screen, an Intel Atom processor, and the Windows XP operating system.

According to Sony claims, the Vaio W, which will cost almost 60,000 yen in Japan and approximately $500 in the US, will run on lower grade hardware as compared to the other Sony models. With a 3.5-hour battery life, the Sony Vaio W-series of netbooks will be available in three colors - white, brown and pink.

Talking about Sony’s venture into the netbook market, a company spokesman said: “The netbook market is expanding, and Sony is following this trend. Sony's Vaio W-series, the company's entrant into the low-cost 'netbook' market, has a 10.1-inch screen and weighs 2.6 lbs.”

Among the new netbook’s other notable specs are a 1,366 by 768 pixels resolution for easier Web browsing; 1GB of memory; 160GB hard-disk drive; built-in camera; Chiclet-style keys for easy typing; Bluetooth; and wireless LAN.