TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Back in June Asus announced its ultra-portable, low cost notebook Eee PC, catching the attention of many budget-minded mobile consumers who would love to use this as their auxiliary take-anywhere computer. Even though their first generation Eee PC has yet to launch later this month, Asus is reportedly already planning to release their second generation Eee PC in April 2008 featuring Intel's Merom processor, reduced power consumption and no cooling fan.

Although the exact specifications and launch price aren't known yet, the first batch of Eee PCs are expected sell for about $249 and feature a 7-inch LED-backlit screen, built-in Wi-Fi, 4GB solid state disk, 512MB memory, and will run a customized version of Linux worked out between Asus and Intel. It will also come with OpenOffice, Firefox and other open-source apps preinstalled.

Keeping in line with its ambitious plans to become one of the top five laptop producers within the next three years, Asus expects to ship over 200,000 of its first generation Eee PCs by the end of 2007 and between three and five million by 2009.