GigaOM guest Samuel Dean ponders the effect the ASUS Eee PCs will have on pricing for portable computers. At under $300, the low-end Eee PCs will be much cheaper than other Windows-based miniature computers.
Actually, the reference to “other Windows-based PCs” is misleading. The first Eees to ship in the USA will do so with Xandros, although Windows Eees (WindEees?) are also expected.
The appropriately-name gadget blog Crave reported on the Eee USA announcement a couple of weeks ago. The 2-pound, 7-inch, Linux-based laptop will be available in three configurations priced from $299 to $399.
The lowest-priced of the three, the 4G Surf, looks fine to me. With wireless, Firefox, and OpenOffice in less than a kilogram, I’d be good to go, maybe even better than I would with a Nokia Internet Tablet.