Asus considering Snapdragon for future Eee PCs

Asus has confirmed that it is evaluating the use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform for future Eee PCs, according to Samson Hu, general manager of Eee PC business at Asustek. Whilst it has no current mass production plans for non-Intel Atom based Eee PCs, it highlights how competitive the semiconductor space is becoming. The Qualcomm Snapdragon platform targets mobile Internet devices category that Intel is going after. Such devices allow for higher speed communication, high performance multimedia, full Internet browsing along with the use of other productivity applications. Toshiba’s upcoming TG01 is one such device that uses Snapdragon platform from QualComm.

Hu also expects netbook pricing to come down by the second half of the year due to competition. The average selling price of a 10-inch netbook is currently between $299 – $399, but Hu expects this to come down below $299 by the end of the year. In terms of market share, he expects Eee PCs to account for 15% of global netbook shipments to the telecom market in 2009, while touchscreen Eee PCs (like the T91 and T101) will account for 10 percent of the company’s total Eee PC shipments this year.

Via Digitimes.