14 DAY TRIAL // Even though analysts have been saying that netbooks will continue to grow as a market, some companies don't seem very convinced, particularly some that actively deal in development and sales of such systems, and ASUS now seems to be betting more on AMD's mobile platform than ever before.
The opinions of analysts concerning the entry-level laptop market seem to be quite mixed lately.
While optimism was brimming around the end of last year (2009), the hype has since died down by quite a margin, for several reasons.
For one, the market has started to become saturated, even despite the newer and more powerful hardware platforms from Intel.
There is also the issue of tablets, which will supposedly impact on netbook share, or so some analysts believe.
Now, according to Digitimes, ASUS is going through a phase where it is seeing little growth in this segment of the industry.
As such, the company has decided to bet more on the AMD mobile platform than before, especially on the Eee PC 1015T.
The 1015T is based on AMD's Nile platform, the one that was released several months ago as a means to counter Intel's Pine Trail.
The CPU used is the V105, one which is built on the 45nm manufacturing process and supports DDR3 memory.
The chip is paired with the ATI Radoen HD 4250 integrated graphics, a 320 GB hard drive and the machine even has and HDMI port.
Along with the 12-inch Eee PC 1201T (MV40 CPU), the Eee PC 1015T is expected to appeal to consumer groups without a favorite brand name because of its lower price.
All in all, ASUS hopes that it will still be able to reach its intended shipment target of six million netbooks in 2010 and is, thus, determined to do all in its power to see this objective achieved.