Clark Howard's Tips

Mini-laptops the wave of the future

May 15, 2008

Clark was practically a majority of one on his staff when he got excited about the Asus Eee (pronounced "Triple E") PC. Joel and Christa were vocal during a recent staff trip about their dislike for Clark's beloved mini-laptop.

The Eee runs on Linux and sells for around $299. There's also a Windows version available for a hundred dollars more. The "wundercomputer" weighs less than 2 pounds, has an 8-inch screen and is great if you have little fingers. It's designed for very basic tasks like web surfing, e-mailing, word processing and cheap VoIP service.

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While the original target market was schoolchildren, it's been embraced by a lot of travelers who have grown weary of breaking their shoulders with traditional bulky laptops.

Asus now expects to sell about 5 million units this year. Those huge projected sales numbers have scared the big players in the market. Microsoft has reversed a decision to can XP, and now will keep it going indefinitely because it works well with the Eee. Hewlett-Packard, meanwhile, is preparing to introduce its own small, light computer for $499 with a 9-inch screen, built-in camera and more.

Before the Eee, nobody wanted to serve this market -- now being called the Netbook segment. So to Joel and Christa, Clark wants you to understand that the Eee and others like it have really created a new opportunity. Travelers now can compute in a whole new way without having to lug around a huge laptop. This is the wave of the future!

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