But after the breakthrough of the seven-inch Eee PC, Asus is looking for another lucky seven from their alliance with Google.
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That mix makes Dell a particularly valuable barometer, since Dell competes with Apple in high-end PC market, Asus and Acer in the mainstream PC market, HTC and Samsung in tablets and smartphones, IBM in the data center, and HP just about everywhere.
FORBES: Dell Beats Q3 Earnings Ests., Misses Sales Targets, Shares Off 1.4%
Canonical currently serves the leading PC OEMs: ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo all certify the majority of their PCs on Ubuntu and pre-install it in global markets.
ENGADGET: Canonical announces Ubuntu for smartphones, we go hands-on (video)
Asus' PC shipments fell nearly 9 percent to 5.1 million units in the first quarter, admittedly a sharp decline, but far less than the industry's overall 12.7 percent fall.
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.
At this juncture, we had to switch sources in order to get native 4K. This was served up by an ASUS gaming PC containing a Radeon HD 7970 -- AMD's flagship graphics card that can throw a 4K signal out of its HDMI 1.4 port.
ENGADGET: This is what native 4K home cinema looks like on Sony's VPL-VW1000ES projector
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.
One can envision these new players in the industry will assume leadership in specific roles within the value chain: Intel-like semiconductor companies building the LED chips, and equivalents of a PC motherboard manufacturer like ASUS packaging the chips into devices that will be used in a variety of end-use lighting applications.
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
Other large PC companies, such as Asus, have Android tablets in the works.
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.
We PC users (I am typing on an ASUS Zen ultra) tend to have two devices.
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Skaugen says almost every PC manufacturer will be showing new ultrabook designs - Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba, and others.
FORBES: Intel: New Laptop Chips, New Ultrabooks To Debut At IDF
Asus also makes more than 20 kinds of Eee PC netbooks, in sizes ranging from 7 inches to 10 inches.
Of all the companies challenging Apple's lead, ASUS has been presenting the most compelling reasons to buy a PC instead.
The PC giant, like rivals HP, Dell, Lenovo and Asus, is currently launching tablets and preparing a number of tablets for release later this year.
Asus actually is a well known motherboard company and ventured into the pc business.
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
Asus has taken a while to join the parade of tablet computers being released by PC and phone makers.
FORBES: Asus Betting On Android And Windows For Tablets, Not Chrome
PrimeSense, the Israel-based company that provided some of the technology behind Kinect, has partnered with ASUS and is demoing the WAVI Xtion, a pair of boxes that wirelessly link your PC and TV together, and allow you to access content on both through the controller-free PrimeSense 3D system.
FORBES: Amid Tablet, 3-D TV Deluge At CES, Gesture Tech Could Be The Next Big Thing
An Asus spokesman said this shouldn't be a problem within 30 to 65 feet of the PC Station on most setups.
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
Hardware partners such as HP, Asus, Acer and Dell are also expected to make the best use of the holiday season to boost PC demand with their respective launches of Windows 8-powered ultrabooks, tablets and PCs.
FORBES: Nokia Ready For Holiday Assault As AT&T And Verizon Launch Lumia WP8
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