Asus Eee Box UK desktop debut delayed?
Even as 10in Eee 1000 lands in Blighty
Updated The UK debut of Asus' Eee Box desktop PC appears to have been put back a month. Originally scheduled for an August arrival, it's now showing up on retail websites with a late September release date.
Meanwhile, Asus said stocks of the Eee PC 1000 10in laptop have been taken off a ship and are speeding toward stockists even as we speak. Well, sort of. It's arrived, though as yet many retailers are still not listing it as available.
Asus' Eee PC 1000: Linux release more costly
Linux buffs aren't going to be happy either way. Asus confirmed that the Linux version carries a recommended retail price that's £20 higher than the Windows XP model.
The Eee PC 1000H incorporates an 80GB hard drive and comes pre-loaded with XP. Asus' recommended price is £349. However, the Eee PC 1000, which is the Linux-based model and comes with a 40GB solid-state drive, has a recommended price of £369.
The only difference between them is their storage medium and OS. So clearly, even with the cost of Windows, that 80GB HDD is significantly cheaper than a 40GB SSD. Why, we wonder, isn't Asus offering a Eee PC 1000 with the 80GB HDD and Linux.
If Asus did, we'd expect the machine to be priced at £319 or less, which we're sure would appeal to rather more Linux fans and others than the 40GB model will - and yet cost the manufacturer not a bean more.
Asus' Eee Box: delayed to September?
Both 1000s are based around a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, and come equipped with 10in, 1024 x 600 displays, 1GB of DDR 2 memory, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 10/100Mbps Ethernet, VGA out and three USB ports. Both are available in a choice of black or white chassis colours.
But back the their desktop sibling, the Eee Box B202. It has the same innards as the 1000H, though the Ethernet's upgraded to Gigabit, and there's a DVI port instead of VGA. When Asus announced the product last month, it said the product would ship in August.
However, Play.com is currently listing the £220 product's release as 21 September. Clove has the B202 listed but with no official release date. One other site, Nexus13.com, has it down as due in August, but Play tends to be fairly reliable on this sort of thing.
We asked Asus to comment on the alleged release date, but it didn't respond to our request.
Update
Asus has now confirmed the Eee Box will be shipping in September.
COMMENTS
Reason is clear
...well to me at least.
ASUS simply don't want to support an Linux version.
No right thinking person will buy a 40GB model when a 80GB model is cheaper. So they buy the XP version and rip out XP.
Some, if not most will probably not bother getting a refund on the XP license from ASUS so Microsoft is quids up and it can report that it's still selling XP so they're happy.
ASUS can report that people aren't buying the Linux model and so they can justify dropping it from future model ranges.
Everyone is happy except Linux users...
Re: Re: It's not that hard to figure out!
I think Microsoft's problem, if they care at all, is that they've come late to the party. The whole sector took off with Linux based devices, presumably because bundling a custom Linux costs very little (i.e., just whatever adapting the Linux costs, then nothing per unit). I would imagine that they've decided to offer XP for very small amounts of cash to try to get into the market. People like ASUS know that at least some potential customers are put off by Linux, so they decide to bundle Windows. In order to keep Microsoft interested, they need the Windows machine to sell well, so they find ways to make it cheaper.
That's a completley unsubstantiated suggestion, but it would involve no illegal market distorting activities on any side and simultaneously explain why manufacturers were 'allowed' to come to market with non-Windows machines but now seem to be acting in some ways as proxies for Microsoft.
Hiding the Price of the OS
This is an illegal trade practice where I live. It is illegal to bundle products like an OS in order to hide the price of it. This is widely used by M$ to avoid competition on price. Look on the web. You will rarely find the same hardware available with XP/Vista/GNU/Linux as options. The motivation is obvious. A monopolist cannot both compete on price/performance and rake in extreme profits.
Higher price and still a crap screen
My little eeePC is pretty neat. The only thing bad about it is the small screen. I was hoping the new version would be 1024x768 min , but no.
Not interested especially with the crap price.
Wow, thats complicated.
I presume 2 things.
1. XP + 80Gb HDD = -£20 the cost of a 40Gb SDD.
2. Linux is not such a disk hog.
Who cares about £20 anyway? you can't even fill your push bike petrol tank with that now-a-days!
<- The brainy dude, because I like Irony....
