ASUS intros cheaper, Celeron-powered Eee Box

In order to lower the purchase price and therefore boost sales of its already well-selling Eee Box nettop, ASUS will introduce a version with an Intel Celeron CPU instead of the current Intel Atom, according to a Tuesday report. While clock speed drops from the Atom's 1.6GHz to the Celeron's 1.2GHz, the new Eee Box will get a larger hard-drive, bumping capacity to 120GB from 80GB.

In its home market of Taiwan, the ASUS Eee Box with the Celeron and larger HDD is priced at the equivalent of about $240. Buyers can also buy a bundle with a 19-inch LCD monitor for the equivalent of about $400. The Atom version in the domestic market costs the equivalent of $300. In the US, the Atom-powered Eee Box is priced at $350. There is no confirmation if or when the less costly Eee Box will come to North America.

ASUS estimates it will ship between 100,000 and 200,000 Eee Boxes before 2009, and more than one million next year.