ASUS Eee PC gives Sony the willies

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It's official: Sony fears the ASUS Eee PC. It worries the elfin notebook's low price, low spec approach could cut the bottom out of the laptop business.

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I think it could, kind of, though not in the way they think. A lot of people are buying these who already have a main machine, frequently a desktop. The latter gives them a powerful machine, but the Eee makes a great accessory - kind of like a PDA on steroids. They can surf, handle their email, do basic office stuff on the move, and still have the power, flexibility and upgradeability of a desktop at home. Kind of removes the need to choose a top spec laptop as your main machine.

I rather enjoyed 'lugging' my eee to a meeting today - i used it to do powerpoint on a projector and raised a few eyebrows from those with bulky laptops.

It's all about the size + the price of entry - nothing comes close. OTOH it's not a replacement, more an ancillary device. Upper management is very interested seeing as they've got to lug lenovo's everywhere just to do some basic tasks.

I played with one the other day and can't see myself giving up my lovely Lenovo X60 for it (thanks work!), but I think the overriding point here is that most people really don't need all that processing power for the stuff they do. A Pentium 1 could run Word, Excel and Internet Explorer on a harddrive measured in Megs, not Gigs. So if the EeePC evolves, it could seriously reduce the prices and margins for all the other laptop players over time.. ..I think this would be a bad thing for most people on this forum as the mainstream computer user essentially subsidises the high-end users (some of the high RnD costs are made back on the mainstream parts that incorporate the cutting-edge tech from a generation before). No need for new technology amongst the mainstream would mean high-end parts pricing would need to bear the full brunt of the RnD charge...