PopularitEee champ ASUS to launch 8.9-inch Eee PC

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 05 March 2008 06:00

Opinion and Analysis

So... the Eee is officially upgraded at last. A promised ‘summer this year’ launch in the Northern Hemisphere means a ‘winter this year’ launch for us in the Southern Hemisphere, and at today’s exchange rate, 399 Euros means around AUD $655.

This could mean the likely Australian price will be AUD $699... which then costs more than Windows based notebooks on sale now, which after an approx AUD $200 mail-in rebate cost only AUD $600.

Given that these Windows PCs can be easily loaded up with Linux, just how popular the new Eee PC will be is yet to be seen, but adding a larger screen and a more powerful processor while maintaining a sub-notebook size still puts enormous pressure on all those AUD $3000 sub-notebooks out there.

If the Eee PC starts becoming more Eeexpensive, will it retail its popularitEee? We’ll just have to wait and sEee!