New Eee PC 900 sells out in Hong Kong debut

by Dan Nystedt

April 21, 2008 —

The new Eee PC 900 with an 8.9-inch screen sold out within
hours of its launch in Hong Kong, an Asustek executive said Monday.

A line of people had formed a few hours before the first store selling the
new Eee PC 900 opened last Friday, and over 1,000 of the small laptops went
quickly, said Jose Liao, a product manager at Asustek during a news conference
in Taipei.

The new Eee PC 900 is slightly bigger and more expensive than the first version,
the Eee PC 701, which has a 7-inch screen. The Eee PC 900 also sports a 1.3-megapixel
camera and 12G-byte or 20G-byte solid-state disk drive (SSD), an upgrade over
the original Eee PC 701, which has a 0.3-megapixel Web cam and SSDs as big as
8G-bytes. The 900 model also carries an oversized multi-touch trackpad. Both
devices weigh less than a kilogram.

The Eee PC 900 also went on sale online at Yahoo in Hong Kong, again selling
out within hours, Asustek executives said.

Asustek is selling two main configurations of the Eee PC 900, one with Microsoft's
Windows XP OS and the other with a Linux OS. The two are identical in price,
NT$15,988 (US$528) in Taiwan. Most of their components are also the same, including
built in 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi connectivity, 4-cell batteries that can last up to
3.5 hours and 1G-byte of DDR2 DRAM (double data rate, second generation dynamic
RAM).

The main difference between the XP and Linux Eee PC 900s is the size of the
SSD. Users will gain more space for their songs, photos and other data on the
Linux Eee PC 900, which carries a 20G-byte SSD. The XP version carries a 12G-byte
SSD.

Asustek also launched its first HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) add
on card designed for the Eee PC. The card ensures users can tap into mobile
broadband from just about anywhere 3G (third generation telecommunications)
mobile phone coverage is offered.

ITworld.com