Asus, Acer Push Back Plans for New Netbooks

By Marcus Yam
published

Asus, Acer looking at revised netbook rollout plans.

The big Taiwanese makers of popular netbooks Asus and Acer are not going to introduce the usual plethora of new netbook models in the second half of 2009, according to Digitimes. This is a rather dramatic shift especially for Asus, a company that introduces seemingly endless variations of Eee PC netbooks.

The change in plans is said to be because of Intel's plans to release the new Atom "Pinetrail" platform in 2010 instead of 2009, thus affecting the plans for all OEMs designing netbooks around the new technology.

Acer will reportedly just rely on its current 10-inch Aspire One netbook to carry it through the year, while Asus will still have its touchscreen-based Eee PC T91 and T101 timed with the release of Windows 7. Asus also plans to bring out an Android netbook this year, though there haven't been any confirmed dates for that product.

With netbook technology temporarily at a standstill, OEMs can shift their attentions towards building ultra-thin notebooks for the mainstream market thanks to Intel's CULV chips.

Of course, before that can go into full swing, someone has to figure out the right type of affordable casing material.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tenor77
    Funny as that pic seems like my idea of the average Netbook demographic.

    I think the bubbles finally burst on the Netbooks
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    I think that the bubble has not burst, but the capabilities are so similar, there needs to be some innovation... More inexpensive touch devices...

    Intel seems to be the ones holding things back. That ticks me off quite a bit.
    Reply
  • seraphimcaduto
    gee, Intel holding back innovation, never would have seen that coming....
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    To be fair, intel's MO has rarely been to 'withhold' innovation so much as it has been to make people PAY for that innovation when they are not pushed by a rival like AMD. Granted, it is obvious from their release of the i7 that they have been known to pull this once in a while, I generally feel they like to release the best of the best, like their SSDs...
    Reply
  • Hanin33
    jacobdrjI think that the bubble has not burst, but the capabilities are so similar, there needs to be some innovation... More inexpensive touch devices...Intel seems to be the ones holding things back. That ticks me off quite a bit.
    touch devices for small foot print PCs is the worst idea ever... on the lines of glossy screens... because they trendy iCrap made them appear popular does not mean they are across all platforms... not every has the fingers of an elf either...

    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    You are correct that 'touch' per se is not the way to go, and that was not my intended market...

    To me, touch is synonymous with tablet. I want tablet functionality, in that i want it for things like MS OneNote. When that is affordable and sufficiently functional (battery, performance, heat, capacitive, etc) you will have a killer product.

    Yes, touch is almost useless without serious serious design consideration...
    Reply
  • teeth_03
    Wheres the ION love?
    Reply
  • chaohsiangchen
    jacobdrjGranted, it is obvious from their release of the i7 that they have been known to pull this once in a while, I generally feel they like to release the best of the best, like their SSDs...
    How do you think about their IGP? Are they best of the best or lamest of lamest?
    Reply
  • jacobdrj
    I think the IGP is a different situation. I think this is a case where their marketing department feels that they need to wait until their product is at least on par with their claims to date about performance. I bet that if they released it right now, it would be better than their current offerings, but well below where they want them to be. By waiting until a complete product is available on the scope of the x25, they preserve their ability to claim and market for a superior market segment.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    wouldn't anyone like to see amd get into the game?
    with their awesome low power chipsets they could probably own even the ion platform?!?!? (i heard there coming with the huron platform but not for netbooks)
    Reply