ASUS Highlights CE Hot Spot

It seems fitting that one of the companies adding polish to one of the few bright spots in consumer electronics helped kick off the press conferences here at 2009 CES in Las Vegas.

Jonney Shih, chairman and CEO of ASUS, took the stage to show off the company’s latest line of sub-compact notebooks, along with the new features and functions of its other mobile computing systems.

Sub-compact systems, along with the even smaller netbooks, have gained greater popularity among consumers and small businesses over the last year. Companies such as ASUS, HP and Acer are quickly adding more robust features – such as improved graphics, memory, speed and wireless capabilities – while keeping the size and price of the systems low.

If the systems continue to sell as well this year as last, they could prove a strong differentiator for retailers looking to give a wide range of customers a strong alternative to larger notebooks and desktop PCs.

Market analyst DisplaySearch, for example, recently reported that netbook and sub-compact categories grew more than 160 percent quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter of 2008, with most of the top-tier PC brands entering the market. Those categories are poised for dramatic growth, propelled by low prices and a user experience that closely mirrors a typical PC, DisplaySearch reported.

The growing popularity of smaller and more innovative systems is not lost on Shih, who said ASUS will continue to focus its development efforts on mobile, touch-based and, further in the future, shared computing.
Much of those developments, he said, will be closely based on consumer-driven trends and will include more eco-friendly materials, such as bamboo, hemp and soy. The systems will also include solar-charging capabilities.

On stage, Shih highlighted the ASUS S121, an ultra-thin notebook with an energy saving 12.1-inch screen. It runs on Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows XP or GNU Linux, offers the option of a 512GB solid-state drive and is driven by Intel’s Atom processor. Its Super Hybrid Engine helps to enhance the system’s energy efficiency by up to 20 percent of earlier models, Shih said.

He also demonstrated some of the new applications the notebooks enable when running on Windows Live Essential Suite BETA, such as wireless full-screen video conferencing and VoIP capabilities.

Moving onto touch-screen computing, Shih showed off the ASUS N20 ultra-portable notebook with a touch sensitive interface, which allows the user to open, move and interact with onscreen applications. He also introduced the Eee PC T91 multi-touch tablet, the latest in the line of ASUS’s lower-cost systems.

Shih highlighted the new ASUS M50 line, which includes a separate 4.3-inch screen run by a secondary computer, which is designed to conserve energy. Through the secondary computer, users can select different widgets or even project a movie onto the notebook’s screen without booting up the main system.

Shih then rolled out the Eee Top, a stand-alone system with a 15-inch touch sensitive screen, which is designed for the kitchen and secondary rooms. The system includes such applications as Eee Memo, which allows the user to post hand-written notes and store them in the appropriate memo folder.

Also on deck is the Eee Keyboard, which is enabled by ultra wideband HDMI and contains a fully integrated computer that can interact with various screens around the home or office. Most of the new systems, Shih said, should be available by the early spring.