Mini-computers known as netbooks may be the biggest trend among PC makers but Orange County’s own Toshiba America is holding off on releasing one of its own, according to a Toshiba spokesperson I spoke to today.

While the company’s European operations have apparently announced the first Toshiba netbook (pictured on right), that model will not be available in the U.S., according to my contact. We may even hear of other Toshiba netbook launches — Mexico? Asia? — but nothing here.

“The company is still evaluating the netbook in the U.S.,” is all my contact at Toshiba would say.

The local Toshiba computing group, based in Irvine, may be wondering as I did, whether people really want netbooks. These mini computers are smaller than laptops with 7 to 10-inch screens and cost around $300 to $600. But they are also less powerful, with Intel’s smallest chip, the Intel Atom. Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo plus a slew of lesser-known brands have already released a netbook or announced one. (See “Mini PCs you may have missed“).

But maybe people do want them? Netbooks were recently on sale at Amazon.com. And this week, Amazon said that mini-laptops like the ASUS Eee PC and Acer Aspire One were among five netbooks in the top 10 best-selling notebooks from June till now. Eight of the top 10 best selling notebooks right now are netbooks.

More on netbooks:

• A netbook with an 18-inch monitor
• Dell jumps into netbooks with $399 PC
• Acer cuts price of its 2-month old ‘netbook’ PC
• Will crazy colors spur interest in new netbooks?
• Another PC company to launch cheap ‘netbook’
• Mini PCs you may have missed
• Netbooks everywhere! Do consumers really want them?

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