Asus Phasing Out 7-inch, Not 8.9-inch Eee PC

With the netbook selection heading in both directions of getting more affordable and sleeker, Asus is dropping its most modest offering from its Eee PC lineup.

Asus chairman Jonney Shih reiterated that the company would shift its focus most heavily on the 10-inch offerings. Shih also denied the Digitimes report from February saying that Asus would be ditching the 8.9-inch models. Instead, it’ll be the 7-inchers that’ll get snipped.

"It seems that customers prefer to have a greater screen, which also means a larger keyboard," Shih said, according to a ZDNet UK story. "I still believe we have a good opportunity in 8.9-inch for kids, telecoms [providers] or emerging markets. The seven-inch [netbook] is going to be phased out, although some emerging countries may still have some demand."

This makes far more logical sense to retain netbook with the larger screen, especially since the physical dimensions of the 7-inch and 8.9-inch Eee PC netbooks are nearly the same.

So, Asus is dropping the cheapest member of the family, and will soon be adding what appears to be a premium 10-inch model. The 1008HA will be the the thinnest and lightest Eee PC yet for its screen size.

Other new Eee products showed at CeBit include the innovative PC-in-a-keyboard, the dual-screen concept, and the swiveling tablet. With the Eee brand now stretched further than ever, Shih still isn’t concerned about the dilution what the brand originally meant to PC users -- a low-cost, barebones, but sensible solution. But the Asus chairmen rebuked that image, saying that Asus did not want to "treat [the brand] like a low-cost notebook concept."

Asus is also slightly tweaking what the Eee stands for -- literally -- with the old slogan changing from "Easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play," to "Easy, excellent, exciting." Not only that, but Asus is changing its motto from "Rock Solid. Heart Touching" to "Inspiring Innovation. Persistent Perfection."

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.
  • Tekkamanraiden
    Well that makes a little more sense.
    Reply
  • They also should change from cheap and affordable, to over expensive and ridiculously overpriced!!!

    So,the Eee wasn't removing their 900 line just like mentioned a week ago?
    Makes sense!

    Finally they do make some sense. Now just bring back that 'affordable but not cheap' concept back, and they will sell numbers again!
    Reply
  • mdillenbeck
    While I love my Eee PC 4G, I do have to admit most web sites don't display the best on such a small screen. I pretty much use it as a backup laptop (if my main one runs out of charge) and for watching Youtube or Hulu videos.

    Also, I am relieved that the T91 won't be aborted - then again, I really doubted they would have done that.
    Reply
  • hellwig
    I find that except for flash, Opera's zoom-in capabilities, and fit-to-width (Ctrl+F11) really help web-browsing on my 7-inch cloudbook.

    However, is there that much difference between an 8.9" and 10" (1.1" doesn't sound like a lot). The difference between the 7" and 8.9" was nearly twice as much. In the end, Asus will stop selling the 8.9", it just makes sense. I have to think in the near future people will see their large 10" netbooks, and once again pine for a smaller computer.
    Reply