Asus Giving Microsoft Preferential Treatment with EEE 901 Release?

Posted by Rick on the 8th of July, 2008 at 8:01 am under Intellectual Property.    This post has Comments.

I’ve been wanting to pick up one of Asus’ EEE PC computers since I first saw one in the middle of 2007, but the features had not really hit the sweet spot for me until they announced the EEE 901 model back in May. Originally, one of the big draws to use EEE for me was that it sported Linux by default, probably mostly because the original models (the 2G Surf in particular) couldn’t run Windows XP all that well.

Fast forward to the more recent models (900, 901): these can run XP just fine. So, it would make sense for Asus to work with Microsoft to provide a version with XP. They accomplished this, but in a sort of underhanded way:

  1. It seems that they go pretty far out of their way to make it seem that the versions carrying XP cost exactly the same as the versions carrying Linux. In the case of both the 900 and the 901, pricing for each version was the same regardless of which OS you chose ($549 for the 900, $599 for the 901). Saavy customers will notice however that the Windows version comes with 40% less drive space (12GB vs. 20GB) than the Linux version.
  2. The other case that I noticed just today (8 July, aka “release day” in the US) is that, at least in the US, it seems that Asus is releasing the XP version first, and delaying the Linux version “a couple of days”. This isn’t easily visible - any retailer that takes preorders isn’t providing expected shipping dates that I could find. Amazon simply says they will notify me when the product is in stock, with no estimate. Newegg doesn’t even list the Linux models as existing. When I called Portable One to ask them if the EEE 901 was in stock, they said “XP in today, Linux in a couple of days”, which is how I figured out what was going on.

Granted, if it is only “a couple of days”, then it won’t be a big deal for most people. In my case, it makes the difference between having it for a business trip I was planning, but it is obviously not the end of the world. On the other hand, why wouldn’t they be able to do a simultaneous release of both versions unless they were trying to favor one over the other? The model available at release will clearly be favored in the market.

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