Asus’ next-gen ION 1201PN netbook loses Optimus tech?

I’d park this firmly in rumour territory for now, but Pierre from Blogeee is reporting that Asus’ upcoming Eee PC 1201PN netbook that comes with ION 2, will not be sporting Nvidia’s Optimus power-saving technology.

His source for this news is Nvidia France, who has suggested that next-generation ION graphics is not synonymous with Optimus technology. If true, this is completely against my understanding of the next-gen ION part. ION 2 was presented to us as having embedded Optimus technology. At no point was it suggested that it is a feature that a manufacturer may or may not include.

It was also the main reason why we were looking forward to it so much, the technology gives users a great compromise between battery life and performance. We await to hear official word from Asus, but if this is true it will kill one of the biggest USPs the Asus Eee PC 1201PN netbook had.