Lenovo has today announced it is entering the netbook market with its imaginatively titled IdeaPad S9 and IdeaPad S10 netbooks.

“IdeaPad netbooks are the latest in a string of recently announced Lenovo products, designed specifically for consumers worldwide and developed through our heritage of technological innovation and exceptional engineering,” said Liu Jun, senior vice president, Consumer Business Group, Lenovo. “As rapidly as the technology changes, today’s consumers are looking for mobile products that feature the best of basic computing functions in an extremely compact and affordable form, and Lenovo designed the IdeaPad netbooks for that purpose.”

The IdeaPad S9 will come with a 8.9-inch screen and the IdeaPad S10 a 10.2-inch screen. Both netbooks will come in a glossy finish, as is the case (ahem) with the Asus EEE PC 901 and the Acer Aspire One. It will come in deep blue and ruby red as well as in classic bold black. Lenovo has designed the keyboard to be 85 percent of the size of a full-function notebook PC’s keyboard - not quite as large as the MSI Wind or Advent 4211 Netbook. An energy-efficient LED backlit display helps provide longer battery life than traditional displays.

We understand that each netbook model will come with a choice of Windows XP or Linux, with the Linux model being around £50 cheaper.

Each netbook will use Intel’s(R) Atomâ„¢ processor, up to 1GB of memory and either 80 GB or 160 GB hard disk drive space.

The Lenovo S10 netbook has an equivalent UK RRP of £269 but official European pricing figures are not yet available. We are told that the S9 will not be available for general sale but through nominated B2B outlets.