Eee PC™ to Feature 3.75G for Internet Access Anywhere
Coupled with All-day Battery Life, 3.75G Capability Puts Eee PC's™ Status as the Ultimate Travel Companion Beyond Question — ASUS today announced that it will be adding 3.75G connectivity* to its hugely-popular series …
Context & Ripple Effects
ASUS had already expanded the Eee PC through lower-cost configurations and larger-screen models, while users were exploring internal 3G HSDPA upgrades themselves. The company also said it had reached a million Eee PC shipments worldwide, giving an integrated mobile-data option a meaningful installed-product arc rather than making it a one-off experiment.
The 3.75G plan turns a user modification into an ASUS-backed product capability, pairing connectivity with the battery-life positioning of the Eee PC line.
First-order effects
- Eee PC buyers gain a built-in path to mobile internet access, reducing the need to modify the device for an internal 3G connection.
- ASUS broadens the Eee PC’s travel-use proposition beyond low price and compact hardware to include connectivity away from fixed networks.
Second-order effects
- Third-party sellers of Eee PC internal 3G retrofit guidance and components face a less differentiated proposition when ASUS offers comparable connectivity in the product line.
- Mobile operators become potential distribution partners for Eee PCs; syndicated coverage framed carrier subsidies as the commercial question raised by the announcement.
Third-order effects
- If integrated cellular access spreads across low-cost ultraportables, PC makers’ route to market becomes more dependent on mobile-network partnerships as well as retail hardware sales.
- The Eee PC line points toward portable computing competing on continuous connectivity and endurance, not screen size or entry price alone.
The trend: Netbooks are evolving from inexpensive secondary PCs into mobile-connected devices whose value rests on access away from Wi-Fi and power outlets.