With Eee PC becoming a focus of the PC market, Asustek Computer has announced it is planning to launch a family of Eee products including: E-DT (desktop PC), E-TV and E-Monitor. All the products while have low-cost as their major selling point, according to Jerry Shen, president of Asustek.
The E-DT, a desktop PC which will not be sold with a monitor, is scheduled to launch in April or May this year and will be showcased at CeBIT 2008. The first E-DT will adopt an Intel Celeron processor, while later generations will adopt Intel's Shelton'08 platform with Diamondville processors and the 945GC chipset. The company has set the price of the PC at between US$200-300 and will try to push it down to US$199.
The E-Monitor will be an all-in-one device similar to Apple's iMac and Dell's XPS One. E-Monitor will cut into the 19-21-inch market and will come with a built-in TV tuner. Pricing is set at US$499, compared to the iMac's price of US$1,199-2,299 and the XPS One's price of US$1,499-2,399. E-Monitor will also be based on Intel's Shelton'08 platform and will be launched in September this year.
Finally, the E-TV will compete in the over 42-inch LCD TV market, but will integrate the Linux-based PC functionality of other Eee PC products. Pricing is to be set to at no greater than US$200 more than TVs in the same class. E-TV is also scheduled to launch in September.
With the desktop PC market slowing down, while Asustek has shown mediocre performance in the LCD TV market, the E-DT and E-TV are likely to find it hard to achieve success, market watchers noted. However, the competitive pricing of the E-Monitor may create similar waves as the Eee PC did, they added.
In other news, Shen also pointed out the company's market research has determined that touch screen is not a highly demanded feature for Eee PC customers, and therefore it will suspend plans to include the option of a touch screen panel in the next generation of Eee PCs.
Source: DigiTimes
