Netbooks are reaching new audiences according to research firm Strategy Analytics. The cheap and portable machines are selling much better than other categories of the computer market. According to the research firm, a full 2/3 of the netbooks on the market sell for under $500.

When it comes to netbooks, predictably Windows XP is the predominant operating system with over 50% of the netbooks sold using the Windows OS. Slightly less than a quarter of netbooks sold are running some variety of Linux.

Asus continues to be the largest brand in the market, which is odd when you consider that for a long time other research firms had the Acer Aspire One as the top netbook sold. More than 50% of netbooks sold have screens under 10-inches in size and few are purchased with integrated mobile broadband. That is likely due to the fact that relatively few of them offer the option today. That will change though as more cellular providers start subsidizing the cost of netbooks with mobile broadband integrated.

Via Strategy Analytics