The big Taiwanese makers of popular netbooks Asus and Acer are not going to introduce the usual plethora of new netbook models in the second half of 2009, according to Digitimes. This is a rather dramatic shift especially for Asus, a company that introduces seemingly endless variations of Eee PC netbooks.
The change in plans is said to be because of Intel's plans to release the new Atom "Pinetrail" platform in 2010 instead of 2009, thus affecting the plans for all OEMs designing netbooks around the new technology.
Acer will reportedly just rely on its current 10-inch Aspire One netbook to carry it through the year, while Asus will still have its touchscreen-based Eee PC T91 and T101 timed with the release of Windows 7. Asus also plans to bring out an Android netbook this year, though there haven't been any confirmed dates for that product.
With netbook technology temporarily at a standstill, OEMs can shift their attentions towards building ultra-thin notebooks for the mainstream market thanks to Intel's CULV chips.
Of course, before that can go into full swing, someone has to figure out the right type of affordable casing material.
Source : Tom's Hardware US
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