Just like many other manufacturers, Dell now announced plans to take a piece of the sub-$500 low-cost notebook market, by releasing its first low-cost 8.9-inch mini-laptop made by Compal Electronics. Compal will initially ship 200,000-300,000 notebook computers to Dell each month, a Compal official said, confirming the existense of such a product. Compal Electronics, the world's second-largest contract manufacturer of notebook computers by revenue after Quanta Computer Inc., aims to ship 1 million to 2 million low-cost notebook computers to Dell in 2008, the official added. Specifications of the new Dell mini-laptop are unknown, but first batches are expected to ship in early June, the same time when Intel's new Atom processors are set to become available.