Asustek Retracts, Puts Qualcomm Android Eee PC on Ice
June 1 Qualcomm presented its new superflat Eee PC with Snapdragon chipset and Xandros or Android to the public. But the enthusiasm waned shortly thereafter.
The Eee PC wasn't yet market ready, said Jonathan Tsang, vice chairman of Asutek, at the sidelines of a press conference at Computex Teipei, according to an ComputerWorld. Tsang added, "For the time being this project is not a priority because our engineering resources are limited."
This might be believable under circumstances, but it gets better: Asustek chairman Jonney Shih himself apologized at the press conference that the Android notebook was even displayed at Qualcomm's booth, as Gizmodo reports. "I think this is a company decision so far [that] we would not like to show this device."
It begs the question, to whom is he apologizing? Perhaps to the vice president of their OEM Microsoft, Steven Guggenheim, who stood with him onstage, or to Intel's vice president Sean Maloney? Both were there to strengthen further collaboration with Asustek. But, at least for Microsoft, a Linux netbook in the works has not been high on its list.
As presented, the Qualcomm Eee PC not only looks fantastic, but would come at a markedly better price than the Intel model from Windows, the Eee PC chip is fanless and it plays back 720p videos flawlessly. Microsoft naturally wouldn't want a competitor to ruin its Christmas season and most likely pulled the emergency brake. Acer Inc. should be happy with that, according to Reuters: the world's number three PC brand has already announced an Android netbook for the third quarter of 2009.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.
-
Plasma Ends LTS Releases
The KDE Plasma development team is doing away with the LTS releases for a good reason.
-
Arch Linux Available for Windows Subsystem for Linux
If you've ever wanted to use a rolling release distribution with WSL, now's your chance.
-
System76 Releases COSMIC Alpha 7
With scores of bug fixes and a really cool workspaces feature, COSMIC is looking to soon migrate from alpha to beta.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 6.0 Available for Installation
The latest release of OpenMandriva has arrived with a new kernel, an updated Plasma desktop, and a server edition.
-
TrueNAS 25.04 Arrives with Thousands of Changes
One of the most popular Linux-based NAS solutions has rolled out the latest edition, based on Ubuntu 25.04.
-
Fedora 42 Available with Two New Spins
The latest release from the Fedora Project includes the usual updates, a new kernel, an official KDE Plasma spin, and a new System76 spin.