Earlier this week, the Asus Eee PC roadmap was leaked by accident (or not by accident, you never know in this industry).
Asustek’s President Jerry Shen has come out and discussed some of the Eee PC models seen in the roadmap (although he didn’t name them by model).
He confirmed what many of us have believed for a while, that Asustek Computer is going after many different market segments and many different price points. This is due in part to their belief that Intel’s forecast for demand of upwards of one billion netbooks and Mobile Internet Devices (MID) is correct. Shen believes that in the third quarter of this year, that Eee PC shipments will meet or exceed 1.5 – 1.6 million units, putting them on track for five million units.
It’s also due to their confidence that from here on out, Intel is going to provide a steady stream of Intel Atom N720 CPUs (as well as the upcoming dual-core Atoms) based on demand.
Asustek is adding two new categories to the netbook field this year, “Ultimate” and “Pro Fashion” (or at least two new categories in Asustek’s lineups).
These will both be based on dual-core Intel Atoms and will have more storage than previous offerings (120GB HDD or 32GB SSD).
The Eee PC S Series which will come out in September will have the 32GB SSD, and unlike previous 10.2 models, it will have a 16:9 10.1-inch display (not too much of a change, but more in line with High Definition (HD) content). It will feature a battery life of 4-5 hours and will be priced above $700 (up to $900). DigiTimes also reports that it looks like either Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) or Innolux Display (both from Taiwan) are the only two companies capable of supplying such panels to Asustek’s Eee PC S Series.
Read: DigiTimes