Asus Reads My Blog, Announces 42-Inch Eee PC
Note: Although I cannot confirm these announcements on the Asus website at this time, both RegHardware and DigiTimes are reporting on it, apparently independently.
Asus announced three new products today that extend the Eee PC brand and basis, low-cost and Linux, according to RegHardware. The three new products are the E-DT, an inexpensive desktop, the E-Monitor, an inexpensive all-in-one PC, and a 42-inch TV-Computer called the E-TV. (You asked for a bigger screen, is this big enough?) I am expecting a check from Asus for the idea behind the TV-Computer, because I already said that someone should make a Linux-based computer to be connected to your TV. All they did is glue my idea to the TV. (Just kidding about them stealing my idea, but I really did write about this.) Here is what I wrote in an earlier post:
“However well the Eee PC does, Linux is not going to suddenly be the most used OS for the desktop. I believe that a logical next step to ease people into Linux would be a set-top box that could browse the internet, edit office files, play media, and do almost anything a normal computer could. As media moves online, the market for an internet-connected set-top box will expand. Additionally, because technology is so much a part of everyone’s life, the ability to browse the web or work on a word document is very useful. Since Linux is free and requires minimal hardware, the box can be cheap enough so that more than just geeks will use it. Although most people would buy a box like this for the media playback capabilities, as long as the box also has the capabilities of a computer, users of the box will become familiar with the full Linux OS, even though they did not buy the box to be a computer.”
OK, getting to the real news here. All three of these products serve the same purpose in terms of Linux adoption - bringing the success of the Eee PC to computers that run a more complete Linux (assuming they do run a more complete Linux.) We don’t have many details, so right now the E-DT, the inexpensive desktop, is not really that interesting. There are already three of them (gPC, Mirus PC, Shuttle PC) out there. I suspect that when the E-DT is launched, it will have something that distinguishes itself from the competition, but no one knows what yet.
The E-Monitor and the E-TV, on the other hand, are very interesting ideas. (I would say new, if I hadn’t already thought of it. 
If Asus follows the path of the existing all-in-ones, and I hope they do, the E-Monitor will be largely focused on style, making it possibly the first Linux computer that can compete with the design of Apple’s products. (Face it, they make pretty stuff.)
The E-TV is potentially even more interesting. When I wrote about my similar idea, I had no idea someone would actually make something similar, especially Asus. If Asus manages the E-TV as well as they managed the Eee PC, I believe it could revolutionize the definition of TV. As I said in my earlier post, “as media moves online, the market for an internet-connected set-top box will expand. Additionally, because technology is so much a part of everyone’s life, the ability to browse the web or work on a word document is very useful.” Right now, the TV is for watching movies, playing games, and watching TV, but with the E-TV you could do your work on it, browse the web on it, and do almost anything on it.
Asus’s new products, especially the E-TV, could introduce Linux to many, many people as well as revolutionizing the way TVs get used. I just hope they sell these products as well as they sold the Eee PC.
