Microsoft and Intel Join Asus for Eee Sequel

The Eee PC can undoubtedly be regarded as a success story. It would not be too hard to imagine that money attracts "investors"; it was Microsoft and Intel to pay a visit to Asus. There have been numerous reports of existing Eee PCs to unofficially support Windows XP and even Leopard installations, and Microsoft is ready to officialy throw good-old Windows XP in the Eee world.

According to some Asustek employees that are closely related to Eee PC product manufacturing, Microsoft has contacted the company to offer them discounted versions of Windows XP for Eee pre-installation. "Originally, we used Linux to save on the cost. However, after the launch, Microsoft contacted us to offer Windows XP with discount licensing."

The main advantage of the Eee PC is the extremely low-cost, since it is built on low-end hardware components and uses freeware, open-source Linux operating system. The same internal sources stated that, in order to preserve low costs, Microsoft has suggested a stripped-down version of the Windows XP operating system that mostly addresses to emerging markets. The Windows-powered Eee PC would be between $30 and $60 more expensive than the Linux powered system.

Asustek are boasting their Eee PC sales and make bold forecasts about how the Eee PC sales will evolve during the next years. The company expects to sell a minimum of 3.8 and a maximum of 5 million Eees for the next fiscal year, which is a daring statement, given the fact that the OLPC project has only delivered 425,000 notebooks for all of 2007. There are no figures available for Asustek's Eee PC sales during this year yet, but since the project has caught Intel's attention, it is easy to guess that they must be pretty bulky.

The Eee is the only sub-notebook to use Intel processors, and enjoys huge popularity on the markets, while the OLPC XO notebook is built on an AMD Geode processor and is not as widespread as the Eee PC.