ASUS's vaunted Eee PC ultraportable will cost considerably more than expected when it arrives in North America, according to an interview with the company's chief executive Jerry Shen. Although the PC maker originally intended to release a $199 system to most of its markets, that version has had its price raised to between $229 and $239 and was scrapped for the US due to a two-cell battery that only nets two hours of total battery life. All American versions will ship with a more expensive but considerably longer-lifed four-cell battery pack capable of four hours of runtime. Despite their sizes and costs, every system will have enough CPU performance and memory to stream web-based Flash video from YouTube and other sites, ASUS says.

The versions shipping to North America will primarily be dictated by storage, according to the company. The stock version of the 7-inch notebook will ship for $269 with 2GB of flash memory, 512MB of RAM, and Wi-Fi; a second version with 4GB of storage will sell for $369. Both versions will also have the choice of a 6-cell battery for an extra $30 and other potential extras, such as custom-fit case or more RAM. ASUS hopes to launch the system in the country for late September and will have black and white versions available, though it would not say whether both colors would be available for all versions and in all areas.

Larger versions of the Eee will also arrive in the future to accomodate different users, Shen added, though none will be larger than nine inches to prevent the small PC from cutting into sales of 10-inch and larger conventional notebooks. These unannounced systems are too early in development to receive final specifications or prices but should also be available in North America at a later date.