The Eee PC is here

Asus' Eee PC is now available in the U.S.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET Networks)

The mini-laptop from Taiwanese computermaker Asus made its official U.S. debut Thursday.

In an outdoor courtyard of the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto, Calif., the computer's intended audience--schoolkids--were in ample attendance. Like most animated Disney films today, the Eee PC is on the surface intended for children, but has plenty to keep the attention of adults too.

The Eee PC is similar in idea to the XO from the One Laptop Per Child initiative and Intel's Classmate PC. But unlike the former two, the primary audience for the Eee is not children in developing nations. Instead, it's intended as a device for the general public.

Classifying the product and its category may be slightly confusing for customers. It looks like a laptop, and mostly acts like one, but Eee PC product manager Donald Leung goes out of his way to say that the tiny device is not that.

"We want to emphasize that it's not a laptop," Leung said. "We'd rather call it a 'super mobile Internet device.'"

Besides its low-power Intel mobile processor, it has 512MB of memory, a 4GB flash drive, built-in Wi-Fi, and standard USB and monitor ports, so it looks and acts like a portable PC. It weighs a scant 2 pounds, and has a 7-inch LCD screen with a built-in camera. The kid-friendly computer runs Linux, and by the end of the year will be available with Windows XP. Color choices include black, white, and three pastels: pink, green, and blue.

For now, the first model, the Eee PC 4G, is available on the Asus Web site, a variety of regional computer dealers, national chain Microcenter. Next month it will be sold on BestBuy.com and Costco.com for $399. More national chains will carry the product in coming months, according to Asus North America President Jackie Hsu.

Also on the agenda are lower-priced versions of the Eee. A $349 version--sans built-in Web camera--and a $299 version with a smaller 2GB flash drive are on the way.

Though it is still in the beginning stages of the process, Asus also intends to follow the initiative of OLPC and Intel. In the next year, Asus plans to ship 1 million Eee PCs to schoolchildren in third-world countries, said Hsu.

Until then, Asus believes the laptop will sell well among parents as a gift for their kids, as well as among stay-at-home moms (for "recipes and online auction-monitoring") and first-time computer users. But its portability could make it attractive for bloggers and mobile workers, too.

[Troll Hard]

I can get a real laptop for $399

with rebates.

Make this thing cost $100 as promised and then poor people in the world can afford it.

[feranick]

Misconceptions

1. This thing is mainly for developed countries.

2. Name a device of comparable size, weight that you can get for the same amount of money. (I'll give you a hint: zero). What you can get with the same money are heavy boxes, of which this device is not a competitor.

[liveincloud]

Get the base version for a low $200 then use Firefox to register for a free Web Computer to extend memory usage.

http://lifehacker.com/5112479/airset-creates-cloud-computers-for-your-data

[czmyt]

8G

I'm gonna wait for the 8G that is supposed to have 1GB of RAM and 8GB of flash memory. If they get that working with a stripped-down version of Windows XP, then it might be a nice little take-everywhere laptop. The fact that it doesn't have the moving parts of a conventional hard disk is nice, so is the very small size and hopefully quick startup time due to the solid state flash memory.

[sjoh]

well still too expensive!

but I think it's good starting point. I am pre-sure that Acer can sell for $200, retailers gotta make some money I guess!

[sjoh]

but it's good deal

b/c you can't find any laptop with similar spec at that price. @feranick@ made really good point!

[bobcode]

Can we get RHEL/CentOS

Now to get RHEL/CentOS on the 2GB drive version with full WiFi support, VIM and XFCE?

[ArtInvent]

gaping hole in the market

I think this is as much for adults as for kids. There is basically a huge gaping hole in the market for a micro-laptop. The ultra-mobile pc has never really taken off because they try to make them a little too small and they try to make too much money off of them. When you can buy a real perfectly useful conventional 14" notebook for $500-600 at any office outlet, there's a pretty tiny segment of people who would spend a grand on a UMPC. And 12" ultra-portables tend to be way to expensive and, really, still too large to tote around just anywhere.

A good micro laptop will be a real laptop. Asus and Palm Foleo and all the others are WRONG on insisting that 'It's not a laptop.' It will have at least 8G drive because you're going to run music and photos on it. It will have 1GB ram, and be able to run ANY pc/linux software. It will have a 10" screen and be the same size as the eeePC. It will cost never more than $400. The eeePC is almost there and in fact by using the open pc card slot to double the flash mem. it would be close except for price and screen size. Then next gen. of eeePC will be there and it will be awesome.

[andrewdel]

Stick to the announced $200 price!

Stick to the announced $200 price! Stick to Linux,
it works! We don't need Windows!

[liveincloud]

I don't think memory will be an issue with these new Netbooks given the emerging cloud computing market. You can use Firefox on one of these machines and register for a free Web Computer at http://www.airset.com to use it like a PC. Here's a quick brief on AirSet from a credible source:

http://lifehacker.com/5112479/airset-creates-cloud-computers-for-your-data