Netbooks - Too little, too late, and way too expensive

Unlike the vendors at Computex, I just can't get excited about Netbooks. Sure, the Intel Atom processor (code-name Silverthorne) is an excellent CPU, but at the $500+ mark, Netbooks are too little, too late, and way too expensive.

Here's the problem with Netbooks as I see it - where's the market? At one end you have the ASUS Eee PC dominating because of the attractive pricing (sub $300), while for $500+ (which is going to be the territory of the Netbooks) these Netbooks are having to compete with full-spec 15" notebooks. Also, the fact that these devices run XP doesn't fill me with excitement either - I find it hard to get enthusiastic about Vista, but that doesn't change the fact that XP is long in the tooth.

So here's the question - you have $500 to spend on a system, what do you do?

[poll id=305]

Me, I think I'll wait for the next-gen Netbooks and get a Linux-based Eee in the interim.

Thoughts?