ASUS Eee PC to strike back with touch screen?

by Parm Mann on 18 January 2008, 12:17

9 inch touch-screen Eee PC rumoured for later this year

You're gonna have to put this one down as just a rumour right now, but with the low-cost notebook market well and truly heating up, this could be what ASUS has in store next.

According to Digitimes, sources at touch panel manufacturers in Taiwan have revealed that ASUS are sampling a variety of touch screen displays, looking for a suitable screen to include in a forthcoming 9" Eee PC.

It is rumoured that the 9" touch-screen Eee PC will feature four-wire resistive touch screen technology and will add only $15 to the manufacturing of each device.

We'll wait for official confirmation from ASUS but in the meantime, a touch-powered Eee PC isn't a bad idea at all. If ASUS can keep costs down, touch functionality might be just what the Eee PC needs to stay once step ahead of competitors this year.

ASUS' new Eee PC is already confirmed to include WiMAX, bigger screens and a higher resolution.

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This should have been something implemented from the beginning considering the size and another means of a pointing device. Though it's not the 1st ‘Mini Notebook’ on the market to incorporate the touchscreen, Belinea s.book with their version of VIA's design has already got a 7“ touchscreen but based on the VIA reference design which includes the integrated Skype handset (which I'm not too keen on). Also in the market (or soon to launch) are the Everex Cloudbook and Packard Bell Easynote have based their products on the VIA design. It'll be interesting to see if any manufacturer could incorporate some ideas of these VIA ‘Mini Notebook’s into a proper contender for Asus's EEEPc, as it stands none of them are particularly desirable as one has a feature that the others lack and vice versa.

A combination of a 9” (8.9) touchscreen with a web camera (no integrated Skype handset) with the reference VIA systems specs it already has; VIA C7-M 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and a varying 30-80GB HDD dependant on cost would be most welcome. Of particular note is that both the Belinea s.book and Packard Bell Easynote both have Win XP already installed. Now the only problem is at the moment both these ‘Mini Notebook’s cost over £250, and the major appeal of the Asus EEEPc is that it's a sub £250 ultra low-cost mobile notebook. If manufacturers can get the above ‘dream’ specs @ a sub £250 price point, then there definitely would be a contender for the Asus EEEPc and a lucrative ‘cash cow’ for this emerging and fast growing niche market.

Its easy peasy to add touchscreen to the 7" model, a friend of mine already has and im waiting for the pack to come into stock. :)

malakai5
This should have been something implemented from the beginning considering the size and another means of a pointing device. Though it's not the 1st ‘Mini Notebook’ on the market to incorporate the touchscreen, Belinea s.book with their version of VIA's design has already got a 7“ touchscreen but based on the VIA reference design which includes the integrated Skype handset (which I'm not too keen on). Also in the market (or soon to launch) are the Everex Cloudbook and Packard Bell Easynote have based their products on the VIA design. It'll be interesting to see if any manufacturer could incorporate some ideas of these VIA ‘Mini Notebook’s into a proper contender for Asus's EEEPc, as it stands none of them are particularly desirable as one has a feature that the others lack and vice versa.

A combination of a 9” (8.9) touchscreen with a web camera (no integrated Skype handset) with the reference VIA systems specs it already has; VIA C7-M 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and a varying 30-80GB HDD dependant on cost would be most welcome. Of particular note is that both the Belinea s.book and Packard Bell Easynote both have Win XP already installed. Now the only problem is at the moment both these ‘Mini Notebook’s cost over £250, and the major appeal of the Asus EEEPc is that it's a sub £250 ultra low-cost mobile notebook. If manufacturers can get the above ‘dream’ specs @ a sub £250 price point, then there definitely would be a contender for the Asus EEEPc and a lucrative ‘cash cow’ for this emerging and fast growing niche market.

how much of the niche is in the software? add the price of msoffice onto the price of a windows-based easynote or s.book, and you're talking lots of cashes

The current Via system is far weaker than the EEE, if you push the EEEs CPU up to its real clock of 900mhz then it's still more powerful than the 1.2ghz Via.

You can upgrade the RAM on an EEE to 2gb for £28, it takes less than 5 minutes and doesn't void the warranty in the UK.

The SSD is also faster than the Cloudbook's HD by a good margin and it will probably be more durable.

The only notebook which bests the EEE for performance is the Air, and that costs six times as much. Producers see that Asus has made an absolute killing with the EEE, but Everex's Walmart laptop is not a competitor.

On the subject of a touchscreen, I just want Asus to release an EEE with a bigger screen and higher res. That's all that needs changing. I also don't want XP as standard, it should remain an option, I'll install it if I need it but if it's mandatory it will just drive up costs.

spazman
Its easy peasy to add touchscreen to the 7" model, a friend of mine already has and im waiting for the pack to come into stock. :)

Any chance of a link to the kit? :)

ASUS Eee PC to strike back with touch screen?

9 inch touch-screen Eee PC rumoured for later this year

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