Digitimes is reporting that the second generation of the Asustek Eee PC will be arriving (or at least introduced) in April of 2008, with the first generation Eee PCs hitting store shelves and online retailers later this month. Some have speculated that the cancellation of the Palm Foleo was directly influenced by the Asus Eee PC, a device selling for around $200 – $400, and that appeared, at least on paper, to be more powerful, in addition to being cheaper, than the Foleo.
While both the Foleo and Eee PC look like laptops, they differ from mainstream laptops in a few key areas:
– Smaller displays than most (“10 for Foleo, 7” for Eee PC)
– Much cheaper (with the Eee PC being cheaper than the Foleo)
– Storage is flash-member based (aka Solid State Drives or Disks – SSDs)
– In the case of the Eee PC, it’s running on a 900MHz Intel CPU
The Eee PC runs a form of Linux, however there will apparently be some Microsoft Windows compatability – with limitations on the memory and the CPU however, it will be slow, and Asustek doesn’t hide that. The second generation is going to run a CPU based on Intel’s Merom, with much lower power consumption (but probably better performance), and DigiTimes is saying that the General President of Asustek’s AOOP Business Group, Jerry Shen, and the company expect millions to be sold next year (with up to 300,000 this year).