With recent reports of future upgrades and plans for the Asus Eee PC people are getting excited for additional features and reasons to pick up an Eee PC.

Asustek’s 8.9-inch second-generation Eee PC lineup will include touchscreen panels and possible GPS support, with shipments expected to begin in May or June, according to Kevin Lin, vice president of Asustek’s sales department. Pricing is projected to reach NT$15,000 (US$500), Lin added.

The company is also looking to ship its E-DT (desktop PC) priced at US$199 at the same time, according to Lin.

The company aims to ship up to five million Eee PCs in 2008 through retail channels and contract orders combined, with quarterly retail-only shipments expected to total 650,000-700,000 units, according to the company. The device is seeing a 50% supply shortage in the Taiwan and Hong Kong regions and 70% worldwide in the first quarter of 2008.

Lin also pointed out that the company currently is facing a battery shortage for its Eee PCs due to a fire at a plant of LG Chem earlier this month but expects to solve the battery shortage in the second quarter of this year.

The 8.9-inch Eee PC will adopt Intel’s low-cost notebook platform and the lowest memory capacity will be upgraded from 512MB to 1GB, while the SSD (solid state drive) capacity will be upgraded from 4-8GB to 8-12GB, according to industry sources.

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With Asus is predicting that their Windows based Eee PCs will outsell the original Xandros version by a ratio of 6 to 4 by the end of this year things will be very watched very closely by the consumer and ScaleGamer alike. Based on this Asus will ship 3 million Windows-based units.

Asustek Computer has officially announced its Windows XP-based Eee PC, and expects Windows versions to account for 60% of its five million unit shipment goal in 2008, according to Jonney Shih, chairman of the company.

The Windows XP-based Eee PC will launch in two versions, the 4G with a 3-megapixel webcam and 4G Surf model without webcam, priced at NT$14,490 (US$471.79) and NT$12,499, respectively. In contrast, prices for the same spec Linux-based models in the Taiwan market are NT$11,655 and NT$10,499.

Although Microsoft is scheduled to stop supplying Windows XP software licenses to OEMs and system builders by the end of June this year, since channel vendors and OEMs will normally hold a certain level of supply, the software should not see shortages until the end of the year, according to Davis Tsai, general manager of Microsoft Taiwan.

Tsai also pointed out that several other vendors, including Acer and Hewlett-Packard (HP), are also considering Windows for their upcoming small-size notebooks which are scheduled to launch later this year. Negotiations are still underway over whether these notebooks will adopt Windows Vista directly, Tsai added.

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With the news revolving around Ubuntu mobile a lot of people are very happy to see this project expanding to a range of devices.

Ubuntu Mobile is an Ubuntu edition that targets an exciting new class of computers called Mobile Internet Devices.
Ubuntu Mobile, based on the world’s most popular Linux distribution, and MID hardware from OEMs and ODMs, are redefining what can be done in mobile computing.

Ubuntu Mobile, a fully open source project, gives full Internet, with no compromise. Custom options may include licensed codecs and popular third-party applications.

• Full Web 2.0/AJAX fidelity, with custom options of Adobe Flash®, Java, and more
• Outstanding media playback so you can enjoy videos, music and photos with superior quality and easy navigation
• A suite of applications that work seamlessly to meet every need of a digital parent, student or anyone who is on-the-go
• Facebook®, MySpace®, YouTube®, Dailymotion®, 3D games, GPS, maps, in short, the full Web 2.0 experience delivered into your hands as a compact and powerful device that’s easy and fun to use

The product of Canonical collaboration with Intel® and the open source community, Ubuntu Mobile is the software that makes it all possible.

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Continuing the adventure at CeBIT 2008 Engadget have spotted the Asus Eee PC 900.

Features:
8.9″ - 1024 x 600 LCD
larger touchpad
2.5 to 3 hours battery life
TBA 8GB version
€399 12GB version

Release date: TBA / Middle of 2008

Asus Eee PC 7-inch Vs Asus Eee PC 9-inch photos

Engadget noticed Asus displaying some of their new Eee PC products at CeBIT 2008.

• Ai Guru U1 VoIP phone
• Eee AP - 802.11g wireless access point
• USB “3.5G HSDPA Card” - GSM900 / 1800 / 1900 and WCDMA2100 / 1900 / 850, with speeds of up to 3.6Mbps
• DVD-RW drive

Pictures and further details - Read more.