Asus kills 7in Eee PC

Asus has confirmed that it's ready to put the 7in Eee PC out to pasture later this year.

Rumours have swirled for weeks that Asus was planning to phase out its 7in and 8.9in netbooks in order to focus on demand for the popular 10in models.

"It seems that customers prefer to have a greater screen, which also means a larger keyboard," company chairman Jonney Shih told Zdnet at CeBIT. "The seven-inch is going to be phased out, although some emerging countries may still have some demand."

He denied the 8.9in would meet the same fate, though: "I still believe we have a good opportunity in 8.9in for kids, telecoms or emerging markets."

Asus has been busy at CeBIT. The company has released a concept dual-screen PC that dispenses with a hardware keyboard altogether, an Eee PC that's all keyboard and an Eee videophone.