Australia’s Current is reporting that Asus will unveil a touchscreen “non-clamshell” version of the Eee PC at Computex.
I’m a little skeptical of this one. While I wouldn’t be surprised to see Asus launch a tablet-style Eee PC to compete with pricier UMPCs sometime soon, the company just launched its Eee PC 900 and is just gearing up to introduce the Eee PC 901 and an Eee PC desktop. I’d hate to see Asus spread itself thin by trying to release a whole new class of device so soon.
But Current claims that their news comes directly from Asus Australia national retail manager Emmanuelle Silansu, who probably konws more than I do about the company’s plans.
Asus does have some experience in the tablet-style UMPC business. The company introduced the Asus R2H almost two years ago. But the R2H carries a price tag close to $1000. Presumably an Eee-branded UMPC would be significantly cheaper.
Maybe their talking about the Asus R50A which is a touchscreen UMPC that runs Atom.