Asus is reportedly launching a version of its Eee PC 1000H netbook with Microsoft Office Personal 2007 preloaded in Japan. The Eee PC 1000H-X will have a 10.2 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 160GB hard drive, and it will be priced at 57,800 yen or about $617 US. If that price seems high, keep in mind the fact that most computers cost more in Japan than in the US.
This will be the first Eee PC model to ship with Microsoft Office. Most netbooks in the Eee PC lineup come with Sun’s StarOffice suite preloaded. Staroffice provides much of the same functionality as Microsoft Office, (or OpenOffice.org, which started out as the open source stepchild of SunOffice), and can even open and edit most Office documents. But if you’ve ever tried using SunOffice to edit complex Excel or Word documents, you know that sometimes things can get lost in translation.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen mention of an Eee PC 1000H-X. The model number first reared its head back in October. So I’m guessing that the model number has nothing to do with the software stack. Rather, Asus is preloading some new software on an existing netbook.
I have never heard of “Personal” edition before. I looked it up and it is not a recognized SKU in North America. There is however an Asian product called personal edition that comes with Word, Excel, and Outlook. That is the same lineup as Office Basic over here.
This could mean that this product isn’t intended to launch here, or that they will just load Office Basic for us. What do you think?
That’s a great idea. Lets add more to the cost of a netbook by adding software only some of our customers will want. What recession?
What part of “fewer models” and “simplify your lineup” does Asus not understand?
We need one model – and then offer options in a sensible manner (hard drive vs SSD, bare-bones, regular, 3G). Give them all the new keyboard, etc. Dump any remaining Celeron models.