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So much for Dell’s personal computer manufacturing operations in the United States. On Wednesday, the PC maker said it would close its plant in Winston-Salem, N.C., as part of a long-term restructuring that will see it cut costs by $4 billion by the end of fiscal 2011. Over 900 employees will lose their jobs as a result.

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The world’s largest mobile phone maker has finally entered the PC market. Not a week after confirming its interest in the netbook market, Nokia leapt into it, uncrating the Booklet 3G–a 2.8-pound “mini-laptop.”

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If the netbook market is a race to the bottom, then Sony is bringing up the rear. Not a year after Sony execs disparaged netbooks as undeserving of its premium brand attention, the company announced its token entry into the market: the Vaio W.

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Apple and Research in Motion may disagree on many things, but they’re of the same mind when it comes to the the netbook phenomenon: It will be short-lived. Asked about Apple’s interest in the category during a late-April earnings call, COO Tim Cook said the company has none. Turns out, Research in Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie feels pretty much the same way.

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In January, Wikipedia claimed nearly 97 percent of the visits that Web surfers in the United States made to online encyclopedias, according to research outfit Hitwise. MSN Encarta received 1.27 percent. Little wonder, then, that Microsoft is discontinuing it. The company announced Monday it would stop selling Encarta software by June and would shut down the encyclopedia’s MSN Web sites on Oct. 31.

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At first glance, the growth of the global personal computer market during the third quarter would seem to belie any notion of a vast economic downturn. Despite the financial crisis gripping Wall Street, PC shipments increased 15 percent from the third quarter of 2007 to the third quarter of 2008, according to Gartner.

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The slow gutting of the U.S. economy hasn’t had as much of an impact on global semiconductor sales; they rose 5.5 percent in August from a year ago bolstered by strong demand for personal computers and handsets. Odd, since you’d assume that slowdown in the U.S. economy would reduce demand for electronics goods and, by extension, the chips on which they run.

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