According to Hardware Zone, ASUS made this choice aiming to be the first to market with the next generation of Ion, but an Optimus version of the ASUS Eee PC 1201PN will be ready later this quarter.
ENGADGET: First wave of Ion 2 ASUS Eee PC 1201PNs lack NVIDIA Optimus
The tiny machine joins Dell's Inspiron Mini 9, the Asus Eee PC 900, the HP Mini-Note 2133 and the Intel Classmate PC among the new class of machines offering cramped keyboards, dinky screens and relatively pokey processors.
Second, while the Asus Eee PC may have been closer to a computing appliance or companion than a PC, the deluge of netbooks from large PC companies such as HP, Acer and Dell that have followed have overwhelmingly run Windows and have been embraced by consumers as small and cheap, if underpowered, laptops.
While we told you earlier this week that the Ion 2-powered ASUS Eee PC 1201PN wouldn't be arriving until late May, a number of European sites have gotten early review samples of the 12-inch "netbook" -- if you choose to call it that -- and have discovered that it doesn't use NVIDIA's Optimus automatic graphics switching technology.
ENGADGET: First wave of Ion 2 ASUS Eee PC 1201PNs lack NVIDIA Optimus
It struck us the other day as we were going over some back posts that since the launch of the ASUS Eee PC (and the numerous products that have followed, from the MSI Wind to the HP Mini-Note), to the best of our knowledge we've all yet to have any normalized, agreed-upon name for these kinds of devices.
ENGADGET: Eee PC-like ultraportables - name that product category
Asus first showed the Eee PC at Computex in 2007.
FORBES: Asus Preparing Mystery 'Personal Cloud Computing' Product For Fall Release
It took Apple to realize the potential of the tablet, Asus (with its Eee PC) to blow up the netbook category, and MySpace and Facebook to create stable, mass-market social networks.
But after the breakthrough of the seven-inch Eee PC, Asus is looking for another lucky seven from their alliance with Google.
FORBES: Seven Inches, Four Months, A Number One Sales Target: How Asus Built The Nexus 7
Asus also makes more than 20 kinds of Eee PC netbooks, in sizes ranging from 7 inches to 10 inches.
We heard the rumor now ASUS' CEO, Jerry Shen, confirms in an interview with Laptop that ASUS will slap a touchscreen and Windows 7 into a new Eee PC sometime in the second half of 2009.
ENGADGET: ASUS CEO: Windows 7 touchscreen Eee PCs in mid-2009, $250 model on the way
Come on, you had to know that one of our first stops at CeBIT was going to be the ASUS booth to see if we could get a glimpse at the leaked 10-inch Eee PC 1018P and 1016P.
ENGADGET: ASUS Eee PC 1018P and 1016P quick hands-on Hands-on
At the time, Asus was a relative unknown in the U.S. cellphone market though its PCs, particularly its Eee PC netbooks, were popular among Americans, explains Lin.
FORBES: Asus Tried Windows Phone 7 Two Years Ago, Assessing Whether To Try Again
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