Posted 07/11/08 at 02:30:45 PM by Pulkit Chandna

The nascent ultra-portable market has been bristling with brimful of good news and has been extremely sprightly. But finally there is some bad news from the world of netbooks. Asustek has announced that it could only manage to ship 1.7 million of its Eee PC netbooks in the first half of 2008 and failed its own expectations by 300,000 units.

However, unperturbed and undeterred, Asustek is sticking to its target of 5 million Eee PC shipments in 2008. A shortage of Intel’s Atom processors is being held responsible for Asustek’s failure to meet its Eee PC shipping forecast. If the shortage persists than Asus might find it difficult to meet its shipping forecast for 2008. Moreover, it has got worthy competition in form of the MSI Wind which is a lot more enticing with its relatively cheaper, more value-for-money price tag.

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Posted 07/09/08 at 05:36:59 PM by Pulkit Chandna

After failing to meet its scheduled release date last month, the pre-ordered MSI Wind ultra-portable/low-voltage notebook finally began shipping on July 7th, 2008, as promised. Those who didn’t pre-order the Wind can buy it now at Fry’s and online New Egg, Amazon, Fry’s, ZipZoomfly, MWave.com and Buy.com. This version of the Wind comes with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, Windows XP Home Edition, 1GB DDR2 memory, 80GB 2.5” SATA drive and a 1.3MP webcam.

It carries an asking price of $479 and comes with a 3-cell battery pack. Those of you who have your sights planted on the $399 Linux version or the 6-cell version will have to wait till September. MSI is also going to roll out its Wind mini-desktop in Europe and Asia this month, however, the diminutive desktop won’t be released in North America.

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Posted 06/30/08 at 08:03:21 PM by Pulkit Chandna

The ultra-portable laptop market is abuzz with launches and manufacturers plan to target the mini-desktop market in the same vein. Although MSI Wind mini-laptop’s U.S launch has been delayed slightly, MSI is going ahead with plans to launch a business version of its Wind mini-desktop in Asia and Europe. However, the mini-desktop that is thrice as small as a normal PC will not be sold in the U.S.

The specs on the power-efficient desktop remain similar to the Wind laptop: a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom, up to 2 GB DRAM, 160 GB hard disk storage, and WiFi 802.11b/g to keep you connected. It comes with Microsoft Windows XP. Unlike the Wind mini-laptop it has an in-built DVD drive. But just like its portable cognate from the MSI stable, it is highly power-efficient and consumes 7 times less power than other desktops.

The top-end version is priced $299 and the base model has a $199 price tag.The commercial launch of the small desktop will not happen until August and only business users will be able to lay their hands on this slender desktop in July, as MSI expects them to be set its cash registers ringing.

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