I’m very impressed with my eee PC so far and it appears ASUS has a lot more cleverness in store including a 200 desktop and a larger ultra mobile computer in May.     This is an interesting play in that they are breaking ground in two computing areas that may have a lot of potential:  mobile internet computers for business and personal use and cheap desktops to capture the market of the millions who have one computer and want more or don’t have one at all.    The brilliancy here is that ASUS has set the price points so low that they are really no barrier to purchase.     Other UMPCs have been so expensive that the viability of buying one for the x/365 number of days a businessperson needs one was very limited, but at $300 for the cheapest eee PC  most traveling onliners can hardly afford to be without one until perhaps mobile phone technology creates usable keyboards and comfortably viewable screens. 

I recently wrote an analysis of the Airbook, suggesting it would have limited appeal.    Technically it is not a UMPC but it’s close, and I was also skeptical of much growth in the UMPC market.   However, as prices plummet things could change considerably as even school kids may start to sprout eee PCs as an alternative to tiny mobile phone surfing and higher priced, heavier, and clunkier laptops.   

ASUS appears to be a privately held Taiwan company, so … no stock available on public exchanges.