Asus EeePC sold out across Australia

By Stan Beer
Monday, 03 December 2007 12:10

Opinion and Analysis

The word from our ear on the ground is that the Asus EeePC sub-notebook, which made its Australian debut in the Myer department store chain on 2 December, was sold out completely across stores in the major capitals by Sunday.

Myer has 67 stores across Australia and the EeePC is being sold exclusively through the chain for a retail price AUD$499.

Asus boasts on its site that it has been selling a EeePC every six seconds and there have been stories about the company not being able to keep up with the demand in the markets in which it is available, including the US. If what took place last weekend at Myer stores is any indication, Australia will be no exception.

Most Linux advocates have been hailing the EeePC, which runs a customized version of the Xandros distro, as a sort of champion that will bring Linux to the masses. However, time will tell whether consumers really care about the underlying operating system or it's really the form factor that excites them.

From the success of EeePC so far, it appears that the combination of a super lightweight clam shell with a 7 inch screen and 4GB of flash RAM with inbuilt wireless connectivity is what the market wants. The question is how important is the plug and play Linux solution currently provided to users. Asus has promised a Windows version of the EeePC will be available before the end of this month.

Meanwhile, we've been hearing all sorts of bizarre tales of brand new buyers of the EeePC loading Windows and even Mac OS X onto the sub-notebook with varying degrees of success.

We'll get an update from Myer on the inventory situation as soon as we can.

We plan to bring you more on this topic in coming weeks both here and in a brand new column that iTWire is launching in the next day or two.