Eee PC to Show off Windows XP

According to Asustek, this company will integrate MS' Windows XP Operating System into its low-cost laptop, Eee PC, which is designed for children. This will be completed by the end of this year, the company announced Tuesday.

The Eee PC is a laptop designed for children and emerging markets that weighs less than one kilogram and has a 7-inch LCD screen. Asustek officially put the first version of the Eee PC, costing NT$11,100 (US$340), on sale Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the Neihu District's popular 3C store, run by Tsann Kuen Enterprise of Taiwan.

Asustek announced three other configurations of the Eee PC that it will release by the end of November. All four versions of the Eee PC will run a Linux OS from Xandros of New York.

The Eee PC won praise earlier this year as another low-cost alternative to laptops such as the XO developed by the One laptop Per Child Project (OLPC). OLPC hopes to someday whittle down the price of its laptop design to $100 from around double that currently. The cheapest Eee PC announced Tuesday, the Surf with a 2GB flash memory drive, will retail for NT$7,999 (US$245) when it comes out around the end of November.

Microsoft hopes to tap into the growing excitement in the ultra-low-cost laptop space, but Asustek won't launch an Eee PC with Windows XP on board until the end of this year.

"XP fits the low-cost segment," said Davis Tsai, general manager of Microsoft Taiwan.

But the trouble with the OS is that Microsoft is trying to retire it in favor of its new OS, Vista. Microsoft has already agreed to extend sales of XP through June 2008, Tsai said. Beyond that, the future is unclear for the OS.