“If [the Eee PC from] Asus starts to do well, we are all in trouble. That’s just a race to the bottom.”

Those were the words of Sony’s senior vice president Mike Arbary, as reported in our news story back in February.

Well I’ve got some bad news for you, Mike. The race to the bottom is well and truly on, and you’ve not even reached the starting line yet.

Dell has today become the latest company to unveil an Eee PC rival, with its Mini-Inspiron (good to see Dell hasn’t lost its touch with imaginative product names).

That bears more than an uncanny resemblance to HP’s Mini Note, which failed to knock the Eee of its pedestal according to our laptops editor, but will still increase interest in this ultra-low budget market.

So that’s HP and Dell on board,  and Acer’s heavily rumoured to be biding its time with an Eee rival of its own. How much longer can Sony afford to hold out? I’ll give it until Christmas.