A few days ago an Asus official announce that the company would be phasing out all of its existing netbook models in the UK and focusing on three new machines: The Eee PC 1008HA, Eee PC 1005HA, and another Eee PC 1000-series netbook that hasn’t been launched yet. Now Blogeee reports that Asus France is following suit.
In other words, you can say goodbye to the popular Asus Eee PC 1000HE and all of the company’s 8.9 inch netbooks in those countries. Asus will still introduce a few other models including the Eee PC T91 touchscreen tablet style netbook. But that machine will be targeted at specialty markets such as education.
When I reached out to my contact with Asus in the US, he told me that the company’s decisions in one country don’t necessarily reflect its global strategy. In other words, there are no official announcements concerning the fate of the Eee PC 1000HE in the United States yet. But it is possible that you might have to do your Asus netbook shopping by country in the future. If you want an Asus Eee PC 1004DN with an optical disc drive, you’ll have to pick one up in Japan. The Eee PC 1000HE with its 7 to 9 hour battery may still be available in the US for a while. And in Europe (or at least the UK and France for now), you’ll have to settle for the Eee PC 1008HA, 1005HA, or whatever new models Asus plans to introduce.
They are dropping like fruit flies in the first fall frost.
Get ’em while you can….