Asus CEO signals Q1 2010 smartbook launch
Asus aiming for ARM after all
Asus will launch a netbook based on ARM chippery during Q1 2010, the company's CEO, Jerry Shen, promised this week.
Details are thin on the ground - we hope to learn more at Asus' annual R&D shindig in Taipei next week - but Shen did say the price could be as low as TWD6000 (£112/$185/€125), according to a write-up by Chinese-language site China Times.
Don't expect to pay as little as that here - there'll be 17.5 per cent VAT to add at the very least, unless Alistair Darling extends the 15 per cent period - but it should still appeal to punters who think netbooks should be as cheap as chips.
ARM-full: Android-based netbook and friend
Shen said the ARM netbook could meet or exceed the success Asus has had with the Eee PC family.
If so, he's changed his tune. In August, Shen said he couldn't see "a clear market" for ARM-based netbooks, even though the company showed off just such a machine at the Computex show in June.
The demo model, an Eee PC 1008HA, was seen running Android. Whether the one coming out in Q1 2010 will too remains to be seen. Shen doesn't appear to have addressed that point. ®
COMMENTS
Asus DS?
A DS for men, no candy pink DS's here, I want a Carl Zeiss 50 MP camera, Bang & Olafsson audio & an HD screen, goddammit. Seriously though, I'm sick, diddly, sick, sick of the current refererence design, something different would be nice, just so long as it has enough poke to surf the web properly.
Tux, cos we know that's what netbook makers always had in mind.
wow
I really look forward to this! I looove ARM assembly, and I'd love a real ARM computer to hack on instead of phones and DSs. With a price point like that, I say.. sold!
Of course Android will get wiped and Ubuntu will be installed first thing.
And no, I'd rather stay away from those Acorns. Nostalgia aside, they still give me nightmares.
Oh give over with the RiscOS stuff
I use to love RiscOS, I really did. But I've moved on, and so has my requirements. Even if you gave it preemptive multitasking and virtual memory, it's still lacking. I want a ARM smartbook, but I will run Linux on it. Python is my BASIC now, InkScape my Draw, Gimp my Paint, and I have Guake for my F12 command line. I can mount filesystem (or things as filesystems) where ever I want them. Drive numbers are no better than drive letters. I'd rather have package management then application folders. If I want to run RiscOS to run my old stuff, RpcEmu does me.
For your consideration
Eee girls...
http://www.moko.cc/html/event/20090824_1/index_1.jsp
w000000t! She's back!
Yes! Yes! Yes!
I dunno which is better, the news, or the picture!
More.. you must.
