Asus announced that the Philippines, along with Hong Kong and Australia will be major markets for the company’s eePc portable product line.

"We consider the Philippines one of our major country targets for our new products," Leon Yu, Asus country manager for the Philippines said, at a press briefing announcing the launch of the eePC.

The eePC is a small, slim portable PC, designed and made for first-time home users, Yu said.

The executive said priced at around R19,800 for the entry-level eePC 701, the Intel-powered machine is capable of providing a whole range of functionalities, including Internet access, multimedia features, and communications capabilities.

The entry-level eePC has a built-in 4GB harddisk, a respectable 512MB RAM, an Intel processor, a Linux OS, and weighs only less than 1 kilogram.

Yu said this machine is "perfect" for the home and for students, wanting to have a cheaper alternatives to notebooks and laptops.

The executive said advance sales have been brisk, as local consumers file in orders for the newly-released product.

Yu said Asus will initially target some 3,000 eePC 701s before the year ends, although different variants of the product will also soon-to-be released in the domestic market.

He said an 8GB and 16GB variant will hit local shelves either by late December or early January.

Yu said however that pricing for the other variants are still unavailable as of the moment.

The eePC will not however compete with Intel’s own low-cost portable, the Classmate PC, according to Carlo Subido, Intel business solutions manager.

He said the two products will be priced differently and will be targetted towards different markets.