So farewell, then, Asus' 8.9in Eee PCs. Another company executive has reportedly admitted they're for the chop.

Benson Lin, President of Asus' Asia-Pacific operation, is indirectly quoted by DigiTimes as saying the 8.9in Eees will the completely phased out during 2009.

Asus' Eee PC 901: for the chop

Lin's comment, if accurate, echoes Asus CEO Johnny Shen who last year said exactly that. Asus UK shortly afterwards told us that Shen had been misquoted, but Asus HQ issued no such rejection, and since then other Asus executives have hinted as much.

According to Shen last year, the move is based on public preference for 10in models, fitted with hard drives rather than SSDs, and running Windows XP. In any case, Asus has way too many models and needs to pare its list. Still, we're surprised it's axing the 8.9in form-factor altogether. Why not just offer one of each?

Well, this way, Asus needs to produce fewer chassis, allowing it to focus on differentiating on features - SSD vs HDD; Linux vs XP - rather than size.

Interestingly, the 7in Eee will stay around, to be sold to telcos for bundling with 3G data plans. ®

Related stories

• Cebit 09 Asus unfolds dual-screen laptop/e-book reader (4 March 2009)
• Cebit 09 Asus cracks out of its shell with Air-esque Eee PC (4 March 2009)
• Asus keyboard PC due May. Or maybe June (3 March 2009)
• Asus confirms Eee Box 206 (2 March 2009)
• BenQ unveils all-in-one PC (22 February 2009)
• 20 per cent of laptop buyers opted for netbooks in Q4 08 (18 February 2009)
• Netbook demand surge to slow next year (4 February 2009)
• Asus unwraps 10in Eee with 9.5-hour battery life (3 February 2009)
• Acer to phase out 8.9in Aspire One netbook? (22 January 2009)
• Netbook SSD usage to fall under 10% in 2009 (11 December 2008)
• Asus denies sub-10in Eee PCs for the chop (5 November 2008)