Asustek (you know them as “Asus,” makers of the Eee sub-notebook) have announced the next products in the Eee family. It seems selling capable, good quality computers for low prices is an exciting and profitable business model.
• The E-DT, a desktop PC that will sell for between $200 and $300. (Snore.)
• The E-Monitor, an all-in-one computer with an integrated 19- to 21-inch LCD panel, a la the iMac or XPS One. Oh, and it’ll include a TV tuner, too. All for $500.
• The E-TV, a 42-inch LCD TV with a built in PC that Asus estimates will cost no more than $200 over a similar LCD TV.
The E-Monitor in particular sounds great. Why buy a monitor for $250 when you can get a whole computer for twice as much? (Okay, that’s probably not the most convincing way to phrase it.)
Asustek announces Eee family product lines [Digitimes.com]
The thing that blew me away was the 42 inch LCD TV for ~$200, that is rediculously cheap. Even if the actual price doubles it will still be cheap.
^
Re-read that, Paul.
“no more than…”
I also quite like the E-Monitor concept (I don’t want one, but I can think of many types of people for whom it could be great); it’s positioned in an entirely different market than the iMac, though. The linked announcement just describes the form factor as iMac-like, which is correct, but “Asus Takes Aim at iMac” is utterly wrong.
Does not compute.
I like asian steve jobs over there.
Don’t snooze on the E-DT until they announce the formfactor. If it’s Mac mini-ish, that’ll be a great deal — they’ve already shown they can cram a fair amount of practical PC into the Eee.
If the E-DT trades the 7″ screen and battery for a more powerful processor and small HDD, doesn’t lose any other features and maybe tacks on Bluetooth — while staying tiny, maybe with a TV tuner as a media center — that could be the <$500 Linux-powered PC that people actually want.
Never mind, Joel, I get it now. I’ve spent too much time hanging around professionals who use top-of-the-line Macs to their full potential; the E-Monitor would be a rather useless toy to them. So I was thinking, which potential E-Monitor buyer would have ever considered getting an iMac? The big mistake I made was that I forgot that entry-level iMacs are actually rather more affordable. So for those who just desire a slick, compact all-in-one desktop model … yeah. I’m still not sure whether Apple has to be concerned about losing market share in that segment. Is the form factor of a non-portable machine really such a big deal that people will make that decision before deciding on an operating system? I’m not convinced, but I concede the basic idea is not utterly wrong.
The form factor lends itself to ubiquity more so than even the Mac Mini. Especially if there is some way to access the monitor portion directly – say to hook up a DVD player. If every monitor (TV) also had a computer built in, it would be incredibly handy. But only if they made it usable beyond the computer as well – since the computer will very quickly be obsolete for many purposes.
Anyway, the Eee line is one of the very few computer developments I’ve been at all excited about in recent history. I don’t have an Eee PC yet, but once I get rid of more stuff I may allow myself to buy one. (I’m in major clutter-elimination mode right now…)
Actually, the important bit is “over a similar LCD TV”; take the price of such a device and add “no more than 200″ to it.
(Yeah, Cpt. Obvious couldn’t resist