Asus E-TV: 42″ LCD TV with Built-in Linux PC

January 31, 2008

Not much is known about the E-TV other than that it will sport a 42″ LCD screen with an inte­grated Linux-based PC. The E-TV is due in September 2008. The E-TV is an exten­sion of Asustek Computer’s fairly suc­cess­ful Eee PC. The Eee PC is a fairly afford­able 7″ note­book PC that allows for sim­ple com­mu­ni­ca­tions and cloud com­put­ing. Pricing is not known but com­pared to reg­u­lar 42″ LCD TVs the E-TV will require a pre­mium of just $200, tops.

In my opin­ion, any non-detachable PC on a TV is doomed to fail. The PC and the TV develop at very dif­fer­ent paces. The top-of-the-line PC today becomes main­stream in about one year. On the other hand, the creme de la creme TV of today can last for a lot longer, often 5 years or more. Of course, when there is a com­plete tech­nol­ogy tran­si­tion such as from CRT to LCD, high-end TVs can become next to worth­less rather quickly. And this is what is hap­pen­ing now.

What I would have liked to see instead is a E-TV that con­nects to and works well with the Eee PC, offer­ing a basic but very large dis­play for the Eee PC that allows for cloud com­put­ing and TV watch­ing. Simple and affordable.

Source: Xbit Laboratories, Gadgetell, Ubergizmo

[tags]ASUS,, LCD TV, Linux, PC, 42″[/tags]