ASUS clearly has big plans for their Eee line of computer systems. According to DigiTimes, ASUS plans on segmenting their Eee PC product lineup – attacking different market segments with different Eee PC models. The company plans on adding two new categories to their Eee PC product lineup (which already has 11 different models) – a new Ultimate model and a new Pro Fashion model. Both of these models are planned for 2008 and will feature dual core Intel Atom processors as well as additional storage space (in the form of either 120GB HDD or a 32GB SSD). Since ASUS is targeting a higher end segment with these new models, you can expect prices to also be a higher. As an example, a 32 GB SSD Dual Core Atom Eee PC with a 10.1 inch 16:9 LED backlit panel and a 4 to 5 hour battery life system will cost around $700 to $900 dollars. Whether or not the market will actually bear such a system is unclear since at $700 to $900 dollars, these systems will be competing directly with notebooks that have Intel Core 2 Duo processors and much larger screens. The only key selling point would then be the lighter weight factor of these small Eee PCs.

ASUS expects to ship around 1.5 to 1.6 million Eee PC units during the third quarter which keeps the company on track for five million units for the year. Meanwhile, worldwide shipments of their new Eee Box (desktop version of the Eee PC) units should hit between 100,000 to 200,000 for 2008 and 1,000,000 for 2009.

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