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The Most Hated Company In the PC Industry
Earthweb ^ | 1/4/2008 | Mike Elgan

Posted on 01/05/2008 5:51:16 AM PST by twntaipan

Who in the *** is Asustek, and why does Microsoft hate them more than any other company in the industry? Why does Apple, Dell and Palm Computing hate them?

And why does Intel love them?

Taiwan's Asustek -- better known as ASUS -- is one of the most interesting, innovative and fastest-growing companies in technology.

At its core, Asustek makes motherboards -- more than any other company. Asustek motherboards are the heart of Sony's PlayStation 2 consoles, Apple MacBooks, Alienware PCs, and some HP computers.

But that's not why they're hated. The source of ire is a tiny laptop called the ASUS Eee PC. This open, flexible, relatively powerful, and very small laptop is notable for one feature above all: It's price. The Eee PC can be had for as little as $299. (Go here to read the reviews -- they're all positive.)

Let's take a moment to ponder how cheap that is. This full-featured laptop costs $69 less than the 16 GB Apple iPod Touch. It's $100 less than an Amazon Kindle e-book reader. The most expensive configuration for the ASUS Eee PC on Amazon.com is $499.

Even though ASUS isn't a well-known consumer brand, and even though the company just started selling them in late 2007, the company expects to sell up to a half million units by March, and up to 5 million by 2009.

The reason Microsoft hates Asustek couldn't be more obvious. The Eee PC runs Linux (Xandros running KDE) and uses an appealing and innovative tabbed-based user interface developed by Asustek. The device also comes with OpenOffice, a Microsoft Office replacement, and Firefox. The entire system -- hardware, OS, office suite and applications -- costs $30 less than Amazon.com's discounted price for Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate alone. The Asus Eee PC is demonstrating to the world that its success depends on aggressively *avoiding* any Microsoft product.

Apple and Dell hate Asustek because these companies have been planning for quite a while to introduce flash storage-based mini laptops. But by the time they get around to shipping, the ASUS Eee PC will have already gobbled up some of the market. Worse, the ASUS Eee PC is preemptively poisoning the well by applying enormous price pressure on these two companies.

In truth, Apple isn't all that concerned because they'll do what they do, and the masses will respond. But poor Dell. That company's flash-based mini-laptop will probably cost five times as much as the ASUS. It will be 10% better and 500% more expensive than the ASUS Eee PC. Good luck with that, Dell!

Palm, Inc. hates Asustek because the company has made a fool out of them. Palm announced in May its Foleo mini-laptop. The device was slightly bigger than the ASUS Eee PC, but less capable and twice the price. The Foleo focused on connecting to the Internet through Palm's own line of giant cell phones. While many think Palm "killed" the Foleo, they in fact only killed the idea of shipping with a Linux-based OS.

In his blog announcement, Palm's CEO vowed to come back with a Foleo-like device that runs the same proprietary OS that powers Palm's next-generation of cell phones. By the time Palm gets around to shipping something, the market will be saturated with millions of ASUS Eee PCs on the low end, and thousands of Apple and Dell units on the high end.

Meanwhile, Intel loves Asustek. The ASUS Eee PC is powered by -- you guessed it! -- an Intel processor, namely the 900 MHz Intel Celeron-M. More than that, Intel respects Asustek for its engineering prowess. Intel discovered this fact when the company was struggling in the 1990s to fix a range of design flaws in its own 486 motherboard prototypes. Asustek was able to fix it, and in fact already had a fully operational motherboard for the chipset before Intel did. Since then, the companies have been very close.

Now rumors are circulating that a new Intel Merom-based ASUS Eee PC that may ship as early as April will run so efficiently that it won't need a fan. The entire laptop will be solid state -- no moving parts. Intel loves that kind of thing.

There's no question about it -- Asustek is the most hated company in the industry. Microsoft, Apple, Dell and Palm hate Asustek because the company can give us something they can't: A super cheap, flexible, powerful mobile computer. At $299, why would anyone not buy one?


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: asus; eee; hitech; linux; microsoft; minilaptop
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To: twntaipan

Mini-laptops as a concept just plain do not excite me. Maybe it’s because I’m 38 and the eyes don’t work so good anymore, but when I’m told 7” screen I think unusable over the long haul.


41 posted on 01/05/2008 7:09:32 AM PST by discostu (a mountain is something you don't want to %^&* with)
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To: twntaipan
ASUS rewrote the rules for a portable notebook at a mass market price. The eeePC won't win any power user awards but it gets the job done with a solid Linux operating system on board and it looks cool. A desktop version is coming out this year. No more Windows Vista bloat.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

42 posted on 01/05/2008 7:10:53 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: 4everontheRight

If you are going to run XP and/or Office, you need to get the 8GB version of this to handle the M$ bloatware. The smaller versions won’t work.

Also, beware of putting older versions of M$ Office on anything...apparently M$ just pushed an update that breaks compatability of .doc files from older versions of Office.


43 posted on 01/05/2008 7:13:42 AM PST by twntaipan (To say someone is a liar and a Democrat is to be redundant.)
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To: Buckeye Battle Cry
Yes - you can load Windows XP on it. But the default OS is so nice and the custom interface is so intuitive people will probably keep the ASUS branded Xandros version. No more blue screen of death.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

44 posted on 01/05/2008 7:15:18 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: twntaipan
Asus, disruptor set to stun. Asus doesn’t play by the rules, they see the whole world collapsing to computing appliances running free software and they plan on building them. That’s why they keep Intel close.

Once the price point is set, it can’t be changed upwards, only down. ASUS, it’s the purple people eater of chips run by Moore’s law, the chip consumes everything.

45 posted on 01/05/2008 7:15:29 AM PST by Tarpon (Ignorance, the most expensive commodity produced by mankind.)
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To: PushinTin

I’m with you. Have tried them all, will only buy ASUS anymore.


46 posted on 01/05/2008 7:18:17 AM PST by txzman (Jer 23:29)
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To: twntaipan
This reminds me of the old Timex Sinclair:

About the same size too.

47 posted on 01/05/2008 7:18:25 AM PST by Brett66 (Where government advances, and it advances relentlessly , freedom is imperiled -Janice Rogers Brown)
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To: Tarpon

Valid take!


48 posted on 01/05/2008 7:21:05 AM PST by dennisw
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To: twntaipan

Never had a problem with Asus motherboards...solid as a rock....

So they built a better mousetrap..this is wrong ?...as for the companies that hate them? well, rats never did like mousetraps....


49 posted on 01/05/2008 7:22:08 AM PST by billmor
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To: Larry Lucido; twntaipan; Squantos; sit-rep
Whenever Microslut hates something, I think of it just the same as when the leftists hate something... meaning that it's almost probably a GOOD thing! :-)

I looked at the specs on the unit. It looks like it might be a decent little unit! My daughter has been in the market for something like this, and maybe she'll pick one up. If she does, I'll be sure and give a detailed report of what we think about it.
50 posted on 01/05/2008 7:22:22 AM PST by hiredhand (My kitty disappeared. NOT the rifle!)
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To: txzman

Me too, ASUS builds good stuff at a great price. Their MBs are tops.


51 posted on 01/05/2008 7:24:35 AM PST by Tarpon (Ignorance, the most expensive commodity produced by mankind.)
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To: twntaipan

Actually, Windows runs great on the least expensive version of the Asus PC.

Find a video showing how quick Windows can be on the Asus at http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z3gHRWXqguw


52 posted on 01/05/2008 7:27:57 AM PST by Puntagorda
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To: discostu
Mini-laptops as a concept just plain do not excite me. Maybe it’s because I’m 38 and the eyes don’t work so good anymore, but when I’m told 7” screen I think unusable over the long haul.

It would depend on how you would use it.

My husband has had several PDA's. He loves them because of their fast on/off, they'll run Power Point and their tiny size. We've been looking at the Eee for a couple of months, and see it as an "inbetween" machine for a PDA and full laptop.

He's maxed out the capabilities of his PDA. New memory cards can help only so much.

53 posted on 01/05/2008 7:28:47 AM PST by Kieri (Midwest Snark Claw & Feather Club Founder)
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To: twntaipan

Excellent points.....Microsoft also broke my Windows 98 when i tried out a demo version of their XP...Learned never to use a demo of anything from Microsoft because of it’s habit of crippling software...

Just where are all the trial lawyers to take this perfectly obvious tort case to court?....oh excuse me...just remembered there is no real way to define a tort...so if i get mugged and lose $100 the perp goes to jail but if Microsoft mugs me out of my $189 operating system, that’s ok because that’s ‘business’...


54 posted on 01/05/2008 7:30:54 AM PST by billmor
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To: em2vn
Unfortunately a lot of trade magazines do exactly that. You advertise in their mag, they give you promotions and puff piece ‘reviews’ of your products. It is incestuous. The Knife magazines got so blatant about it that Cold Steel (Ventura CA) REFUSES to advertise in knife mags, and lets the chips fall where they may in ‘reviews’ (they make the best knifes in the nation, and therefore the world).
55 posted on 01/05/2008 7:34:27 AM PST by allmendream ("A Lyger is pretty much my favorite animal."NapoleonD (Hunter 08))
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To: twntaipan

Wouldn’t surprise me if Microsoft bought Asustek soon.


56 posted on 01/05/2008 7:36:41 AM PST by Cymbaline (I repeat myself when under stress I repeat myself when under stress I repeat myself when under stres)
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To: twntaipan

At this moment, I’m surrounded by systems with ASUS motherboards in them...

This one, and 4 others in this room. Plus another 4 systems in another room of the house, but those have been retired. When I get a chance, I may try putting linux on one, just to see how it works (3 of the 4 have 128MB of RAM, and were used for Win98 and Win2K Pro testing, while the 4th has 768MB of RAM, and was used for a server - All 4 are AMD K5/2 500MHz).

Mark


57 posted on 01/05/2008 7:40:11 AM PST by MarkL
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To: blam

Good. I’m tired of listening to hard drives constantly grinding away.


58 posted on 01/05/2008 7:41:52 AM PST by LiveFree99
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To: LiveFree99
The eeePC has a solid state drive. That's why its so cheap. The storage space is limited but it doesn't matter. Portable flash or USB drives can be had cheaply these days.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

59 posted on 01/05/2008 7:44:39 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: twntaipan

I tried to use various linux, and I like what I could use. But I could never get/figure out the tweaks you had to do to get wifi, or a printer going. I tried the forums but spent so much time saving a buck that I could of worked at a gas station and just bought Vista.


60 posted on 01/05/2008 7:47:40 AM PST by Leisler
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