406 Not Acceptable

Just when you thought ASUS were under pressure for the ultraportable market, along come three more challengers to the Eee’s throne. Both Acer, MSI, and ECS are planning on joining ASUS and Everex in the booming affordable ultraportable market. The good news is all three companies are looking to amend the main issue with the ASUS Eee Pc — the screensize. Acer are looking to match the Eee Pc 900’s 8.9 inch screen; MSI are considering an 8 or 10 inch screen; whilst ECS plan on having a range of sizes from 8.2 to 10.2 inches. Even better news is the fact that the Acer machine will be cheaper than the Eee Pc 900; although, pricing for the ECS or MSI machine is currently unknown, but it would be a huge blow to ASUS if ECS or MSI could get a 10″ model to retail at the same price as the Eee Pc 900.

Very little details for each machine is available right now, but I’ve tried to gather as much information as possible.

Acer

• 8.9″ Screen
• Rumoured 800×480 resolution (WTF??!)
• 4-8GB of Flash storage, or traditional drive
• Estimated price $350-400
• May release

ECS

• 8.2″ to 10.2″ Screen
• Intel Atom Processor
• Intel 945 GSE chipset
• Upto 2GB of DRAM (Dynamic Ram)
• 3G Connectivity
• WiFi
• 56k Modem
• Bluetooth
• 4 in 1 Card Reader
• 4-6 Cell Battery

MSI ‘Wind’

• 8″ or 10″ Screen
• 1024×768 resolution (not widescreen?)
• Intel Atom Processor, between 1 GHz -1.6 GHz
• 1GB RAM as standard
• Choice of Solid State or Traditional 2.5″ drive
• Linux or Windows
• 7 Hour battery life
• Retail between £299 – £699 ($500 – $1400)

All information was gathered from the links in the article. I don’t make up FUD!

Things could look very interesting for the consumer this summer, as the many choices of ultraportable hit the market. I can see the price of the original Eee dropping, perhaps by £25-50 ($50-100,) and the 8GB model taking its current price. There would be little point in buying an Eee at the current price, as the Acer seems to be offering more for the same price. All this rivalry in the market is good for the consumer, and prices will fall. Who knows, we might even see an Ultraportable hit the magic number — £99 ($199.)

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4. Meamo becomes Meego, but what of the N900?