With China-based Skytone's Alpha 680 netbook sending ripples of excitement after its online spotting earlier this week by Computerworld blogger Seth Weintraub, Skytone's co-founder Nixon Wu has confirmed that the netbook is going through final testing process, and will hit the markets within three months.

Roughly priced at $250, the Alpha 680 will run on Google's Android operating system, and will make use of the economical and energy-efficient ARM processor - used in mobile phones, including iPhone - rather than the commonly-used Atom processor used in most netbooks.

Being designed by Guangzhou Skytone Transmission Technologies Co. Ltd, the final prototypes of the netbook - which were showcased at Hongkong's electronics trade show last week - will likely be readied by June, with the final product to become available within a couple of months after that.

With excitement abound about the potential technology underlying the Android netbook from a rather unknown Chinese manufacturer; market experts opine that the ARM-Android combination signifies the beginning of an era whereby sub-$200 netbooks, with 12-hour battery life and creative designs, will have a momentous impact on the market.

The proposed ARM-Android netbooks would also be able to clinch a large part of the netbook market from Intel's Atom chips and Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, thereby weaken the grip of both Intel and Microsoft on the PC market.