Asus Eee about to get some competition

Asus Eee

This should not come as a big surprise. The success of the Asus Eee PC has not gone unnoticed by other notebook manufacturers and many are now looking at their own competing versions of this low-cost notebook.

The Chinese-language Commercial Times suggest thats Acer is getting an Eee-like device ready for early this year. It is expected to come with a similar 8- or 9-inch display. Built by Wistron, it could be launched as early as later this quarter. Pricing would be on par with the Asus Eee.

But Acer is not alone. Intel has announced the details of its Shelton’08-based low-cost notebook platform (Basic Platform) that many manufacturers will be able to use as well. Using the Intel 1.6GHz single-core Diamondville CPU, it would come with a 533MHz FSB and a 945GSE chipset with built-in DirectX 9 graphics support. A typical configuration would be rounded out with a small display (up to 9-inch), a solid state drive and 802.11 g Wi-Fi module. Such a configuration could sell for between USD$300 to USD$500.

Micro-Star International (MSI) and Gigabyte Technology have already started development on such models and Dell, HP and Acer are also expected to throw their names into the hat.