Asus slashes netbook prices again

ASUS SEEMS to be taking the notion of a summer clearance sale seriously this year, having slashed prices on its 7-inch and 8.9-inch Eeeeee PCs in order to clear out its inventory.

A report in DodgyTimes this morning said Asus’ car boot sale sees the firm flogging its 7-inch Eee models for $153, down from $215, and its 8.9-inch crotchtops for a much reduced $219, in Taiwan as well as behind the bamboo curtain in greater China.

So how much money is Asus losing in its Atomic “everything-must-go” super sale? Well, sources in Taiwan tell us it takes about $190 to slap together a little lappie. We figure this is about right, considering Dell sells its cheapest netbook offering online for about $230 and usually gets a gross margin of around 25 per cent.

Therefore, assuming Asus’ discount bill of materials (BOM) for its 7-inch systems will be around $170-180, and using source estimates that tell us Asus is offloading around 3,000 machines in Taiwan alone, that already makes for a $60,000 loss. And that’s not counting how many of these cheap and cheerful machines show up in India and China.

And here we were thinking the sub-$200 PC was nothing but a myth. µ