After two sturdy months in the market, Dell decides to rebrand its own Inspiron Mini 9, as Vostro A90 business netbook, to be available in Japan only, for an expropriated price of ¥92,830 ($999). This awkward move doesn’t have any reason attached, and the price tag might hint the company tries to target premium markets, but despite the refreshing design, the specs remain the same, including the usual Intel Atom 1.6GHz N270 processor, an 8.9-inch 1024 x 600 display, 1GB of RAM and up to 8GB SSD storage drive. In short, it really doesn’t matter if Dell smells something we don’t or the Inspiron version wasn’t answering the expectations, bottom line is that people can do the math for themselves, either buying a Mini 9 for $449 or nabbing a Vostro A90 for almost $1000, at their next Asian trip.

Update: Dell’s Vostro A90 has finally reached US shores, offering a 4-cell battery, together with 802.11g connection, 0.3 megapixel webcam, 16GB SSD and the aforementioned Atom processor, for a starting price of $349, which is way more reasonable than last time we were checking.

[via Register Hardware]