Asus Eee PC - The Computer for Computer (Il)literate Parents?

"Are Your Parents Computer Literate?" is an interesting post on the Gadgenista blog. The blogger, Lia Amanda Espina, gave her mom an Asus Eee PC for her 60th birthday gift and wondered if her mom will be able to really utilize the notebook.

Considering that her mom is presumably computer illiterate and advanced in age, the fact that she and her siblings decided to give her an Eee PC is testimony to both its low-price and user-friendliness. And it serves as a very good example of Asus' original intended target of the 2nd billion - potential users who have never bought a PC either because of price or software complexity. After all, it is doubtful if Lia and her siblings would even have considered another computer (bigger size, higher price, more complicated interface).

That point made, here's hoping Asus will continue to focus on targeting this specific market and therefore provide the rest of us as well with cost-effective, very functional Eee PCs instead of bringing out more expensive, larger, and heavier models.

At any rate, here is hoping Lia will do a follow-up on that story. As she puts, "hopefully after a week or so my mom would already know how to surf the internet by herself, send email and watch YouTube. She’d be hanging at coffee shops, sipping latte and surfing on her spanking, brand new white ASUS EEE PC!"

If and when her mom actually does those things, that would yet be the best testimony to Asus' Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play tagline.