ASUS CEO Jerry Shen Discusses the Eee's Future

From DailyTech: It's now been a full year since the Eee debuted and the netbook class couldn’t have come at a better time now that the economy is doing poorly and netbook sales are a large part of what is keeping the computer industry afloat. Laptop Magazine interviewed ASUS CEO Jerry Shen on the future of the Eee and what we might see by the Eee's second birthday. Shen says that to date four million Eee netbooks have been sold and he expects to reach five million Eee's sold by the end of 2008. That number is for Eee notebooks only and doesn't include the Eee Box according to Shen.

Touch-enabled Eee netbooks have been rumored for a while and Shen told Laptop that touch sensitive Eee systems would be available by early 2009. Real details on touch-enabled Eee's are not available. Shen did say that ASUS is exploring different form factors for the touch Eee. One possible form factor is a convertible tablet and the other is a standard notebook style with a touchscreen. The convertible design would make more sense for many users.

Several new Eee SKUs are coming to market to allow the Eee shopper to find a machine tailored to their individual needs according to Shen and more products will be introduced in January 2009 at CES.

When it comes to the most popular Eee models, Shen says that during the first quarters of 2008 the 7-inch Eee was the most popular. Entering into Q3 the 9-inch and 10-inch Eee models were selling very well including the 900, 901, 1000, and 1000H. The original 7-inch size still sells well according to Shen.

Laptop Magazine asked Shen if we would see 11-inch or 12-inch Eee notebooks and he said that when you get into sizes higher than 11-inch it becomes a notebook. Therefore, he doesn't expect ASUS will release an Eee with a screen over 10-inches in size.

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