Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/17/everex_announces_9in_cloudbook/
Everex follows Asus Eee to announce 9in sub-notebook
Unreleased CloudBook follow-up named
17th January 2008 12:22 GMT
Not content with mounting a serious challenge to Asus' elfin Eee PC, US manufacturer Everex this week said it will follow up its 7in CloudBook sub-notebook with larger models later in the year.
To be fair, these are all enhancements Asus has already pledged to make to the Eee PC line-up. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), it announced it would release 8in and 9in notebooks Eees later this year (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/08/ces_2_gen_eee_pc_no_show/). In November 2007, it promised this year will see a desktop version (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/09/asus_preps_desktop_eee_pc/).
Everex's CloudBook: aka Packard Bell EasyNote XS20, aka Belinea s.book
So Everex - owned by Taiwanese manufacturer First International (FIC) - is really just playing catch-up. So are other Taiwanese companies, with the likes of Acer, Gigabyte and others hinting they're going to be tackling the low-cost laptop and ultra-cheap desktop markets in 2008. Many of these products will be based on Intel's 'Shelton' platform (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/13/intel_readies_shelton_diamondville/).
Everex's first CloudBook, the CE1200V, will go on sale in the States on 25 January for an Eee-matching $399. Like the Eee, the CloudBook comes with a 7in, 800 x 480 display, 512MB of DDR 2 memory and a version of Linux pre-installed, but it also packs in 30GB of HDD storage and a VIA C7-M processor rated at 1.2GHz. The Eee's 900MHz Intel Celeron M chip actually runs at 630MHz.
Everex also has a desktop version (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/10/ces_everex_battles_eee_pc/) in the works, the gPC mini, annouced at CES last week.
According to a Computerworld report (http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9057441&pageNumber=2), the 9in CloudBook may be called the DevBook and will incorporate a touchscreen display. It too will run the Linux-derived gOS and be priced at $400-500. The target audience: Linux software developers.
Related Reviews
• Asus Eee PC 701 4G (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/16/review_asus_eee_pc/)