How it began
Asus announced the Eee PC at Computex Taipei in June 2007 and released the first model, the Eee PC 701 4G, in Taiwan on 16 October 2007. The name came from the slogan Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play. It was first thought of as the company's response to the One Laptop per Child XO-1. Time magazine later wrote that Asustek practically invented the netbook category when it launched the Eee PC 701 for 400 dollars.
Before it existed
Very small laptops already existed, such as the Sony Vaio Picturebook and the Toshiba Libretto, and in Japan subnotebooks had long been common. They were expensive, with prices in the thousands of dollars. A small portable computer at a few hundred dollars had not been offered to the mass market before.
How it works
The Eee PC 701 weighed 920 grams and measured about 22.6 by 16.5 centimeters. It used an Intel Celeron M processor, 512 megabytes of memory and a 4 gigabyte solid-state drive in place of a hard disk, with Wi-Fi, Ethernet and three USB ports. It shipped with Xandros Linux adapted for ease of use. The machine was underpowered, but it gave access to the web, email and basic office tools for about 399 dollars.
How it spread
The Eee PC sold quickly and other makers followed. When Intel introduced the low-power Atom processor in 2008, a wave of new netbooks arrived with about 1 gigabyte of memory and hard disks of up to 80 gigabytes. Asus added models with Windows XP. At Computex in 2009, makers showed larger netbooks with 11.6 inch screens and touch screens, and Acer showed one running Google's Android.
Where it stands today
Netbooks faded as buyers moved to tablets and Ultrabooks. Asus ended production of the Eee PC series in January 2013, then reused the name for the EeeBook line in 2015. Reviewers credit the Eee PC with opening the way to later low-cost laptops such as Chromebooks.
