Asus Eee PC Price Hike, Limited Launch Next Month

When Asus first took the wraps off the Eee PC a few months ago, this small, Linux-based laptop drew a great deal of attention for its unusually low price.

Since that time, though, Asus' estimates of what it will charge for this model have crept up a bit.

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Citing anonymous sources at the company, DigiTimes is reporting that Asus will begin shipping the Eee PC in September in four different configurations priced at $200, $240, $350, and $370. Exactly what these configurations will be is not yet known.

DigiTimes is also reporting Asus will ship only 20,000 units during September to the U.S., Europe, China and Taiwan ... and that most of those will be the $350 configuration.

Still, the company reportedly plans to ship 500,000 units before the end of this year, and to increase production of the Eee PC to between 3 million to 5 million units in 2008.

More About the Asus Eee PC

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The Eee PC will have the typical clamshell design for a laptop computer, with a 7-inch display, a full QWERTY keyboard, and a trackpad. It will be 8.9 inches wide, 6.5 inches deep, and 1.4 inches thick (22.5 cm by 165 cm by 35 mm). It will weigh just under 2 pounds (890 g).

It will ship with a Linux-based operating system with a basic set of functions, including web browsing, exchanging email, and even video chatting with a built-in VGA camera.

For a low-cost device, it will ship with an impressive collection of connectivity options: 56K modem, Ethernet, 802.11b/g, three USB ports, VGA port, and an SD card slot

To make it more resistant to breakage, the Eee PC won't have a traditional spinning hard drive. Instead, it will include either a 4 GB, 8 GB, or 16 GB solid-state Flash drive.

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Jerry Jackson contributed to this article.