In completely unsurprising news, Asus has not quite managed to meet its ambitious goal of shipping 2 million Eee PCs in the first half of 2008. Instead, Asus shipped 1.7 million units.
The computer has certainly been selling like hot cakes, (does anybody actually buy hot cakes?), especially when you consider that this time last year the low cost ultraportable market didn’t even exist. But Asus says the Intel Atom CPU shortage has affected the company’s ability to meet its goal.
That shortage is expected to end within the next few months though, and Asus sources tell DigiTimes that the company still expects to ship 5 million Eee PC units this year though.
If you consider that here in Belgium Asus only started selling in brick and mortar shop toward the end of June it is feasible. They are in fact only starting to sell to the average (non IT) consumer.
Well if they sold that many with the 900 priced at $549, they will probably sell a lot more at $399. Basically the price was high due to a parts shortage.
Considering they sold 1.7 Million in the first half of the year I struggle to see how they will sell close on double that in the second half with so many new competitors. Considering the price premium attached to the EEE as well I see them hitting another two million max!