Is Asus the new Apple?

Nathan Taylor | Jan 22, 2009 10:36 AM

There are few companies that have impressed me as much as Asus recently. The company has a host of cool new PC products coming out this year and while not all of them are guaranteed hits, it’s really satisfying to see a PC manufacturer that’s willing to try radical designs.

For years, PC users have had to put up with companies that thought design innovation was offering their notebooks in different colours, while Mac users reaped the benefits of Apple’s adventurism.

Apple, meanwhile, seems to be stuck in a bit of a rut. The iPod touch in 2007 was its last big hit, and while the Macbook Air is kind of cool, it’s way too expensive to be very compelling.

And this year’s Macworld, overshadowed by the recent downturn in Steve Jobs’ health (one of the real dangers of the cult of personality they’ve built around Jobs), produced what? An update to iTunes and a 17” MacBook Pro?

Really, while it’s nice that iTunes is dumping DRM it’s hardly a major innovation.

We still have Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference midway through this year, but it doesn’t seem to have anything significant coming down the pike there either.

Getting back to Asus’ lineup for this year, here’s a quick rundown of some of the devices that are coming:

Eee PC T91 and T101H

– probably the devices I’m most interested in. These are 8.9” and 10” touch-screen Eee PCs with rotating screens that can turn them into a tablet.

If they’re combined with multi-touch technology (which Asus, like Apple, has been very keen on) these could be uber cool – but at this stage it’s not at all clear that they will support multi-touch.

The sticker is the price – tablets and touch screen notebooks have historically cost several times more than normal devices. We don’t have pricing on the Eee PC T91 and T101H yet, but they’re due here in the second half of the year (maybe in time with the launch of Windows 7, which will have multi-touch capabilities built in).

Eee Top

– due here real soon now, the Eee Top looks a lot like an iMac, with the main PC components built into the monitor chassis.

It has a 15.6” touch-screen display and uses a specialised interface that overlays Windows XP. It’s not multi-touch, which is disappointing, and it’s only available with an Atom processor.

That relegates it to a bit of a niche, but it’s potentially a cool stepping stone to advanced multi-touch systems.

Eee Keyboard

– a keyboard with a built-in PC. Think back to the Commodore 64 or Amiga. That’s what we’re talking about, except much slimmer and having a 5-inch interactive display and touch screen.

Like other Eee devices, it’s built around the Atom processor. It also incorporates WideBand HDMI output and serves as a wireless hub.

This looks insanely cool, and I’m sure it’s going to get some major press when it’s released. Unfortunately, we still don’t know when that will be or how much it will cost.

Eee Stick

– this one’s a little bizarre. It’s not a PC – it’s basically a motion-sensing controller for PCs (think Wii nunchucks, though the two elements are not connected to each other).

The left nunchuck can be used as a 3D mouse. I’m not sure if there’s much demand for this in the PC space, especially with PC gaming circling the drain, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Eee Box

– like the Eee Stick, I don’t think this one is going to be a big winner for Asus.

The Eee PC is a low-powered, highly compact desktop PC. It’s really cheap ($429), but no cheaper than low-end desktops from other vendors – and it’s rather less powerful than most, running as it does on an Atom processor.

It’s a novelty at best, me thinks – but if you’re really keen on checking it out, it’s already available (see our Eee Box review, and Eee Box photo gallery here).