Asus to Hike Prices of Eee PC, Notebooks

By Jane McEntegart
published

According to several reports, Asus has announced an increase in price for all of its portable computers, including the ever popular Eee PC.

ARN reports that Asus will increase prices on all existing and upcoming notebooks and Eee Family products effective March 1, 2009. Some models will see an increase of up to 20 percent.

While there are no specifics, it’s worrying that the Eee line is included in this. Netbooks are, by definition, a cheap and cheerful solution to mobile computing and while we appreciate the fact that Asus needs to make money, we can’t imagine raising the price on existing models will do much for the company’s reputation as the company that kicked the craze off in the first place.

At $400, an Eee PC is pretty decent value, however, an increase of 20 percent will put it not too far from $500. We’re inclined to think that if someone is willing to pay $500 for a netbook, they’re probably willing to pay a couple of hundred more for a machine that can do considerably more than a netbook. This price hike will put the Eee PC out of reach for a lot of people who want a netbook but are determined to stick to a budget; and with the netbook market as “us too” as it is, people have more alternatives to the Eee than they could shake a stick at.

If these rumors come to fruition, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to Eee sales. Stay tuned for more. 

Jane McEntegart
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • _horse
    Yeah, definately not a good move for consumer interest, but I can understand the price hike.

    It's my hope that ASUS can remember we're all hurting here, and that along with the complete mobility status of these really cool little rigs, the sale price in this economy was the big selling factor.

    I dont suspect that this is going to "kill" the netbook market, but it DEFINATELY wont be helping it.
    Reply
  • pug_s
    Asus is not the leader of the netbook market anyways. They buried the right shift button in some corner. That's why Acer is the leader of the pack.
    Reply
  • _horse
    Doesn't necessarily need to be "leader of the pack" so to speak. It's still gonna hurt for consumers. Everyone goes to different companies for different choices.

    Oh and if you look at newegg on the netbook's page, the top three are ASUS.
    Reply
  • _horse
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2034940772%204802&name=Top%20Sellers
    Reply
  • Probably with the economy and stuff.. They probably didn't sell as many as they hoped they would in 2008.
    But then near to 500 for a mininetbook? That's crazy!
    Just for reference, the OLPC was aimed to become the $100 pc; as well as the Eeepc was aimed to be a sub $200 Pc!

    I won't be buying one soon then.
    Especially not knowing Intel came along with the newer chipset.
    They probably want to quickly sell stock,and have a reason to boost up the price of the next EeePc (with atom N208 or something) before they will drop them again.
    Typical marketing decisions.
    If they had stayed on their $200 priceline everyone in my family would have had at least one!
    Reply
  • lookuphere
    dumb move; probably doing this to slightly boost current (and gradually lagging) PC sales.

    I'll call this bluff and wait until April.
    Reply
  • Acer makes a netbook?
    Reply
  • mdillenbeck
    We'll have to wait and see if any other manufacturers do the same. We are all hurting economically, but a company does have an expectation to be profitable. If they are breaking even on netbooks, they are faced with a choice - increase the cost to make a profit or cut the product line. Which would be prefered?

    I think that Asus has several interesting products coming up. I am very excited about the T91/T101 series, as I would love a netbook tablet to tote to physics, chemistry, and biology classes instead of a heavy convertable or expensive slate! Also, I think Asus is planning to move away from the traditional "its a desktop" or "its a laptop" device and into the more ubiquitous "its there - but I didn't realize it was a computer" model.
    Reply
  • NuclearShadow
    Asus is going to face serious problems if their competitors either don't raise the prices along with them or if they simply don't raise it as much. If they think they aren't making any profits now once they raise those prices and people go elsewhere they will certainly be making a loss. Sometimes its better to make a small profit from each sale if the sales are stable than to make a larger profit with less sales and this would be one of those cases.
    Reply
  • rhelme
    Hmmmm, economy is in the crapper, people generally don't have as much disposable income, and ASUS thinks that right now is the time to raise the price on what is a very low end PC?? I sure hope this is a rumor as I can't think of a faster way to kill sales than to raise the price by a staggering 20%.

    I guess I will believe it when I see it... I was considering picking one of these up to use when I traveled in airports and hotels, but with the 20% possible increase, I can pick up a machine that has a few more bells and whistles for about an added 10%.

    I guess sometimes greed can actually shrink your market and make something that was pulling in a few dollars actually sell alot less and in the long run cause them to lose money...

    Reply