Can PC manufacturers make money on ultra-light ultra-cheap laptops? That’s the question:

The personal computer industry is poised to sell tens of millions of small, energy-efficient Internet-centric devices. Curiously, some of the biggest companies in the business consider this bad news.

“We’re sitting on the sidelines not because we’re lazy. We’re sitting on the sidelines because even if this category takes off, and we get our piece of the pie, it doesn’t add up,” said Paul Moore, senior director of mobile product management for Fujitsu. “It’s a product that essentially has no margin.”

Enough companies seem to be on board to keep this trend going, and I hope that continues. Small, cheap and connected devices constitute a very disruptive tool that could change our day-to-day lives in ways that haven’t even occurred to us yet.