ASUS Eee PC’s Future, Running Windows 7 a Definite

For such a huge company, ASUS does a lot of things well. They build great motherboards, graphic cards, audio cards, notebooks and more… as we’ve seen time and time again in our own content. What they don’t do too often is release a product that turns the industry upside down. Take the Eee PC, for example. It was released a little over a year ago, and look at all that has happened in such a short time span. Even companies who don’t typically build computer equipment are jumping on the netbook bandwagon, and there is no chance of it slowing down soon.

DailyTech references a Laptop Magazine article which saw an interview with ASUSTeK’s CEO Jerry Shen, to try to get an idea of where the Eee PC will be in one year. Some of what’s said is somewhat obvious, but Jerry remains firm that the company will never release a model larger than 10″, and to me, that’s a good thing. It’s the small form-factor that’s selling this thing, after all.

Another point made in the article is almost more noteworthy than the rest, though. Jerry claims that by mid-summer, the company will release a new Eee PC that will run Windows 7. Now, a statement like that is huge, because from what we’ve understood up to this point, Windows 7 would not be due out until late next year or early 2010. All of a sudden it’s been bumped up to next summer? I’m somehow doubtful, and hope it’s not true. I thought late 2009 was early enough… shaving off another 4 – 6 months is not going to be a good thing.

When asked about Easy Mode for Vista, Shen said he doesn’t believe that ASUS will offer Vista on the Eee. However, Shen says that Eee’s will be available with Windows 7 by the middle of next year. Some of the Eee models running Windows 7 will offer multi-touch capabilities, one of the few details known at this point about Windows 7.