Myer loses exclusivity on eeePC

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Dan Warne14 January 2008, 2:41 AM

ASUS has announced that Myer has lost its exclusive position as the only retailer of the Eee PC in Australia.

ASUS has announced that Myer has lost its exclusive position as the only retailer of the Eee PC in Australia. ASUS will now sell the bargain priced sub-notebook through:

Betta Electrical, David Jones, Good Guys, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi, Myer, Officeworks, Retravision and WOW Sight & Sound.

Ted Chen, Managing Director of ASUS Australia, said in a statement, “The Eee PC has taken Australia by storm, fascinating the public and captivating the media. Due to the tremendous enthusiasm the Eee PC has generated, ASUS is pleased to be extending distribution to Australia’s major retailers to meet consumer demand.”

Something to smile about: many more places to pickup a bargain-priced Eee PC

“The Eee PC has been moving fast since it hit Myer stores in December 2007 and continues to do so. So far approximately 80% of stock has been sold through major Australian retailers and we are trying to get as much allocation as possible from our headquarters to ensure there is stock on shelves. There is a high demand for the Eee PC worldwide and Australia is no exception!”

The Eee PC went on sale in Myer Sydney City on Saturday, 1 December 2007 and ASUS claims it was sold out by 12.30pm on the same day.

On the following day, it went on sale in Myer stores nationwide and as at close of business Monday, 3 December 2007, ASUS says all capital city stores (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth) were sold out, with limited quantities available in metropolitan stores.

ASUS claims it has created a new category in the PC market with the $499 Eee PC – a "lifestyle gadget" designed for internet access and learning.

The odd name comes from "the three Es: Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play".

Here's a retail trade secret !
Salesmen everywhere (not just Myers) are told to push products that have been on shelves for a long time. Floor stock does not earn money. So this month it is HP PDA's (until sold out) and next month it will be the unsold eeePc's !!!
I'm not being facetious, just pragmatic.

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tin:

Hmmm. I didn't even know they were out. Maybe that's because they were exclusive to a chain of stores that are almost purely in capital cities (and their suburbs).

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Lawrence D'Oliveiro:

Going like hotcakes

Asus says it's shipping one Eee every 6 seconds, and it looks like it still can't keep up with worldwide demand.

Looks more and more likely the Eee will hit the upper end of Asus' estimates for shipments in the first 12 months--closer to 5 million.

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Ash:

I saw and used one at Officeworks last week, so obviously this story is a bit late.

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Me 2:

I work at a small computer shop, and we have had the eeePC in stock for at least 3 weeks. To be honest, I didn't even know that Myer had exclusive rights for the eeePC.

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Kelvin:

The Eee reminds me of the original USRobotics Pilot when it came out (which morphed into the PalmPilot) - a basic device with a very focused purpose which also fits into its own niche. They also happen to cost exactly the same - my Pilot 128K cost exactly $499 when I purchased it in 1997!

The cynical side of me, however, thinks that it's only a matter of time that it will bloat and try to turn into a device that tries to do everything (in an attempt to retain market share), and then lose the simplicity that makes the original so endearing. Let's hope this doesn't happen.

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Anon:

Maybe its the fact that for 50 extra dollars you can get a proper laptop with at least double the processing power and ram and more then ten times the hard drive. It's just too expensive for what it is. Back when we first heard of it it was "the $US100 laptop", and I was interested in it. But not for $500, way too much.

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I like gelato:

I would like to point out that this is not a laptop but a UMPC, which are much smaller compared to the usual laptops (and therefore for different markets, with portabilty much greater than lugging the usual 15" screened laptop around). I believe that the high price tag is made up by its compact design. Also its performance is actually quite good, due to the ultra fast SSD included, which are also very expensive.

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Me:

That is exactly the argument we used to sell the current "normal" laptops

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Raymond:

hey guys come and buy it at officeworks Castlehill. We sell it for only $488!!!

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Fred:

they sell Black EeePCs at Binglee. (they also sell white)

and one question what can you do on Eee PC

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Max:

I plan to use mine for study. I won't have to print all the PDFs that I don't need to annotate. I can install DrScheme for my programming class (and any other dev environment for that matter). I don't have to wait for a computer at the Library to get online and most importantly I don't have to lug around 4kgs of Laptop + Charger to do it.

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