Taiwan Netbook vendors seeing more 3G bundles

From Digitimes -

Acer, Asus and BenQ have all reported increased netbook sales in Taiwan via 3G bundle offerings from telecom carriers such as Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Mobile, and Far EasTone. Netbook sales also accounted for more than 50% of all notebook sales in July, up from 30-35% in Q2 2009. About 170,000 units were sold in H1 2009, with over 300,000 unit sales projected for the entire year.

Taiwan Netbook bundling partnerships, Jul 2009
Telecom carriers	Vendor
Chunghwa Telecom	BenQ (accounting for 30-40%), followed by Acer, Asus
Taiwan Mobile	Acer, Asus
Far EasTone Telecommunications	Asus, Acer

Source: Industry sources, compiled by Digitimes, July 2009

FET to launch e-book service

From Digitimes -

Taiwan-based carrier Far EasTone Telecommunications and local bookstore chain Eslite have signed an MOU to provide e-book services in China, Hong Kong and other Chinese-speaking markets in both Southeast Asia and North America. The joint venture will offer both ebook readers and contens and will start Q2 2010.

Novell sets up Taiwan netbook Linux R&D team

From Digitimes -

US-based Novell has established an R&D team specifically for developing Linux operating systems for use in netbook PCs in Taiwan. It will cooperate with Taiwan-based vendors of netbook PCs to develop driver programs and design human-machine interface to support the latter's hardware using Novell's SUSE Linux operating systems.

Google sets up tech team in Taiwan to support Android-based products

Per Digitimes the president of Google Taiwan, Chien Lee-feng, has revealed that his company has set up an Android team there to offer technical support to local hardware makers developing Android-based products, including netbooks and embedded systems.

Win XP in Cloudbook in Taiwan

As the screenshot above clearly shows, Windows XP is now available on the Everex Cloudbook, previously only available with gOS. While this particular model is available only in Taiwan, the way Microsoft has been aggressively pursuing manufacturers, it should only be a matter of time before it becomes available in other countries as well.

Translated Everex site here.

Original Everex site here.

New Asus Eee PC info from Taiwanese blogger

Submitted by reader Bluberry -

A Taiwanese blogger who goes by the name of Jeremy offers a cornucopia of info on the Asus Eee PC on his blog. The translated version in English can be read here. (Note: the translation is kinda crappy.)

At the any rate, here are the highlights of his posts:

1. The Asus Eee PC will be officially launched in Taiwan on Oct 11, 2007.



2. Keyboard is a bit cramped for Jeremy's ring and index fingers.



3. The 300K webcam.



4. The Asus Eee PC with a 3.5G HSDPA Huawei card attached, which provides Internet access via cellular.



5. The Yahoo home screen as it appears on the 7" screen. Notice the truncation.



6. OpenOffice in action. The Word document opened fine without any problems.



7. Excel file also loaded without any problems. Formulas were intact.



8. Powerpoint presentation ran smoothly as well.

9. Jeremy feels as long as the Asus Eee PC does not exceed TWD10,000 (about USD305) it should do well.

The TWD10,000 appears to be the psychological price point in Taiwan, as compared to USD200 in the US.

There are tons of information in the blog, including more photos and videos. It is definitely worth a visit.

Asus Eee PC Selling in Taiwan for USD257

According to member jonel003 of the TipidPC forum, the Asus Eee PC is available in Taiwan for NT$8,500 (approximately USD257). If purchasing in volume, the price can be negotiated down to NT$7,500 to NT$8,500 (USD226 - USD241). No word on the exact configuration, though.