It’s amazing how retailers are still having trouble keeping the Eee PC in stock. It’s selling like crazy!

It might be even more difficult during February:

Shen also pointed out that the heavy snows in China may have a possible impact on February’s notebook shipments. [Digitimes]

This probably isn’t good news for those of you trying to find an Eee PC in stock or waiting for the 8G shipments to resume. Combined with the Chinese new year, it’s going to be a difficult February for notebook supplies.

You’ll be happy to know that ASUS is planning on addressing three main areas of concern in future Eee PC devices, and they just happen to be the most important aspects. They include:

• Making the small screens larger.
• Increasing battery life.
• Shortening battery recharge time.

I can certainly say that all three are quite important to me. A larger screen would be fantastic, but battery life is my most important concern for any device I own. Especially as technologies like WiMax arrive, it will be important to optimize the Eee PC’s power needs to compensate for attached peripherals.

It looks like the Eee PC is a hit in Japan! Around 10,000 Eee PC units have already been sold in just the first week of the device being available.

If you didn’t remember, the Japanese have the Eee PC 4G-X model which costs a little more than the typical 4G but includes pre-installed Windows XP, a 4GB SDHC memory card, and a mouse.

8GB and 16GB SDHC cards just not enough space for you? You’re in luck.

Sandisk will be releasing a massive 32GB SDHC card in April, for $349. It will be interesting to see the read speeds of the card as some are fast enough to be able to be quite close to the Eee PC’s internal SSD. As a result, you can use some SDHC cards as your primary Eee PC drive, and even install Windows XP on it.

For those excited about ASUS’ plans to release a touch screen equipped Eee PC, we have bad news. According to this Digitimes article, ASUS market research has shown that a touch screen is apparently not very important to potential Eee PC users. As a result, it will not be included in the next generation Eee PC devices.

This is interesting, as ASUS planned to have the touch screen feature literally 11 days ago. Moreover, estimates put the manufacturing cost at only $15 dollars.

How do you feel about this? Would you have wanted a touch screen in your next generation Eee PC? I suppose we are the market- let your voice be heard!

ASUS is planning on expanding the Eee PC family.

Today, three new devices were announced: the E-DT, E-Monitor, and the E-TV.

• E-DT: Desktop PC, No Monitor, Launching April or May. Will use Celeron and will cost between $200-300.
• E-Monitor: 19-21″ screen all in one desktop computer. Based on Intel Shelton, Launching in September. $499.
• E-TV: 42″ Plasma, will feature Linux based functionality. Will launch in September.

It’s interesting that ASUS apparently has chosen to use a single E, rather than the full three letter “Eee” name for the series. It could be a matter of not wanting to dilute the brand, or not wanting to create confusion. Certainly, the E-TV doesn’t fit into the whole “inexpensive computing” genre.

Just wanted to post a quick reminder that the contest to win a Carrymobile Snake Print Case ends tonight at midnight (eastern standard time).

You can see the original post here, and the forum thread where you can enter right here.

We’ll be randomly selecting the winner tonight and will let them know within 24 hours as per the rules.

Good luck!

ASUS had a great 2007, as seen in their net profit:

The company posted 27.45 billion Taiwan dollars (850 million US) in 2007, compared with 19.22 billion dollars a year ago [link]

ASUS shipped around 400,000 Eee PC’s during 2007.

While the Eee PC release may not be directly responsible for all of this profit, it certainly played an large role in giving ASUS invaluable advertising after the original Eee PC announcement in June.

If ASUS ships 4-5 million Eee PC’s in 2008, it looks like they’ll have an even more fanatastic 2008!

The ASUS Eee PC 4G has been officially launched in India.

The Eee PC will be available starting February 2 evening at Croma stores in Juhu and Malad, as well as at e-zone. It will come in two colors — Galaxy Black and Pearl White.  [link]

It appears as though the initial offering will  be limited to Mumbai, however other cities will be added during March. For more information, check out this article.

I’ve uploaded my review of the Fabrix case for the EEE: http://eeepcworld.wordpress.com/2008/01 … e-for-eee/

“The Fabrix cases offer the benefits of padding (which does, it must be said, add a fair bulk to the case), and, optionally, handles, but, most of all, offers a degree of personality which the corporate Asus case cannot hope to match. With the fully-customised sleeve (the more expensive of the two cases here) at approximately £27 at today’s exchange rate, the prices are not cheap, but neither are they unreasonable- these cases are well-made, with solid stiching and good construction. Shipping is an extra $9, so this should be factored in also - however, as the cases come from Singapore, this is not excessive, in my opinion. If you want a case for your EEE which is aesthetically somewhat out of the ordinary, Fabrix could well be the case manufacturer for you.”

You can discuss this review, and read comments from other users, on the forum.