Asustek company chairman Jonney Shih predicted that they will ship 3-5m (million) Eee PCs in 2008. Wow! If they think that there’s that much demand for mini PC’s then why aren’t we seeing other manufacturers taking the plunge with small PCs. So far we’ve seen the SA1, the SH6 and soon, the Packard Bell Easynote XS and Everex mini notebook devices (based on the Nanobook reference design.) but only the Nanobook variants are targeting the lower-price market. (VIA’s Bjorn Stromberg has posted a comparison report on the Eee PC and Nanobook today.)
The Eee PC isn’t that cheap either. The mainstream version is planned to be available (to resellers or consumers?) for US$349 which, when you consider that there’s no hard drive, no Bluetooth, no touchscreen and no Windows operating system, isn’t as exciting as the $200 device mentioned back in June.
Digitimes say that volume shipments of the Eee PC will start in Mid Sept which means customers could be getting hands-on in October if the first batch of 20,000 isn’t already taken by special orders.
Eee PC Specifications and links.
