Everex Ships Touch-Screen CloudBook PCs with Bluetooth in Japan

The Everex CloudBook sub-notebook introduced earlier this year is now shipping in an updated configuration, including a 7-inch touchscreen, Bluetooth, and 802.11a to complement the existing b/g Wi-Fi specifications.

If you are one of the CloudBook PC lovers, then you must already know the fact that you can barely find a regular CloudBook PC unit anywhere. However, Everex has just released a touch-screen version of the ultra-mobile PC on the Japanese market, as previously estimated by the company's marketing director, Paul Kim.

Back in February, when the CloudBook PC was introduced on the market, Kim said that Everex plans on releasing a touch screen version of the CloudBook to developers 45 to 60 days after the sub-notebooks hit the shelves. He also estimated that the consumer version will be available during the third quarter of the year, but it seems that the company rushed up things a little bit and introduced the touchscreen version earlier.

It is alleged that the choice of pushing back the release date for the new version of the notebook is mostly due to the increasing competition on the Linux-based UMPC market. Let's not forget that the third quarter of 2008 will be marked by the invasion of a broad range of low-cost ultra-mobile computers, such as MSI's Wind 10-incher.

The rest of the CloudBook's technical specifications are unaltered from the standard version released in February, also known as the CE1200J. The notebook includes the 1.2GHz VIA C7-M processor and 30GB of conventional hard disk drive. What has been modified is its price, that also got a boost from the $399 in the original model to about $600.

The touch-screen-based CloudBook UMPC will be officially released to the Japanese market on March 22nd, while the availability date for North America and Europe has not been discussed yet.