Asus's homeopathic Eee

Ah, Asus and its Eee brand. It all started off so well with the Eee 701, with its titchy 7" screen and lightweight, cheap-as-chips goodness. Then the second and third generations rolled in with obscene haste, and suddenly it's all starting to look like the Eee brand is becoming diluted beyond recognition.

The most egregious example thus far has been the Eee 1000. I've had a play, and this 10.2"-screened laptop is just that: a laptop. Not a "netbook". It's too heavy and, frankly, a tad too pricey to be a netbook. It's still relatively cheap for a small laptop, but it's really pushed the boundary that bit too far to be as cool as the 701, or even the 8.9"-screened 901.

Now we have the S101, which many sites are reporting as a new Eee PC. This one will probably cost around £450 (the original Eee 701 was around £200), will have a 64GB SSD (nice, but unnecessary for the device at hand), and a 945GME chipset to power its LED-backlit screen.

Is it an Eee? It does use the Atom processor, but it's too expensive and probably too heavy to qualify in my book. A spokesperson for the company told me today that the S101 is not - as widely reported - definitely going to be branded an Eee, because Asus management are still deciding whether it fits with the Eee's "original purpose".

Much as I abhor marketing-speak, I think the term "brand dilution" was made for situations like this. With Asus rumoured to be readying oodles of new Eee models, let's hope they keep the core purpose in mind. With every other manufacturer diving headfirst into the netbook market that Asus opened up, the company would be foolish to lose track.

UPDATE: Eagle-eyed Karen found this page on Asus's own website. It refers to an "Eee PC S101" and, interestingly, the 1002 model. Of which we have heard nary a whisper at the time of writing. We're onto Asus's PR team about this one now...