Extraordinary how an electronics product can appear from nowhere and take the world by storm. The Asus Eee is now sold out everywhere it was selling. Asus reckons it will sell nearly four million of the little laptops next year.
You’d expect such a phenomenon to come from Sony or Apple. To see it emerge from a Taiwan manufacturer goes to show that taste in design is universal, and universally appreciated.
In America, Asus sold 10,000 Eees in a fortnight, and Asus reckons it will sell 350,000 by the end of this year.
According to Amazon and CNET, the Eee is the most desired Christmas present in the US.
From Oz, there were actually photos on the web of people queuing up outside the Myer stores in Sydney to either see, or buy, an eee.
Seeing an ultramobile Viaio this morning made me think first, how lovely, then how crazy to try and sell that against the lovelier Eee, which is a tenth the price of the Viaio.
The Eee has that elusive quality, charm. Strange how a conglomeration of plastic and silicon can generate such a quality.
One of the greatest compliments the Eee has received is that Microsoft is said to be gagging to get a stripped down version of XP onto Eee.
This could be a mistake because the Linux OS used on Eee makes it terribly to use, it boots up really quickly, and having Linux helps make the Eee nice and cheap.
None of which are Microsoft characteristics.
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