Asus has announced it intends to begin shipping the ultra low-cost EEE PC in September. According to Asus, the E's in the title stand for "Easy to learn", "Excellent Internet", and "Excellent mobile computing experience." Asus reportedly plans to ship up to 500,000 of these systems in 2007, and up to 3-5 million in 2008.

As Digitimes reports, the EEE PC will be available at multiple price points, from $199 - $369, with the $349 model targeting the US mainstream. Overall specifications on the EEE are as follows:

7" LCD Display

900MHz Celeron-M ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) 353

Intel 910 Chipset

512MB DDR2-400 RAM

4, 8, or 16GB solid-state storage

ASUS-customized, Xandros-derived Linux OS

Dimensions: 225x165x21-35mm

Weight: ~2 lbs

Colors: White, Black

The variations in price are almost certainly due to the size of the solid state storage drive available within the unit.

At a potential $199 price point, the EEE PC could offer some significant competition to the OLPC initiative, but we won't

be able to directly compare the two units until we have shipping hardware available. By concentrating on the $349 model

first, Asus seems to be focusing on establishing a brand and market presence in the sub-notebook market first, rather than

attempting to go head-to-head with the OLPC's mandate of providing a useful computer to the developing nations of the

world.