ASUS to shutter Eee Stick, LCD divisions?
updated 07:50 am EST, Thu December 31, 2009
ASUS may be disappointed in tech lines
ASUS is considering closing the groups that produce its Eee Stick Wii-like controller as well as its desktop and TV LCDs, a rumor insists today. Industry contacts for DigiTimes allege that ASUS isn't satisfied with either the shipment numbers or the profits associated with any of the three divisions and that the Eee Stick group is particularly hard hit, having lost 80 percent of its staff to include just 20 workers. The LCD groups still have orders but are facing tough outside competition.
The cutbacks would even have gone as far as the Eee PC line, according to the tip, but the company thought twice after realizing it would need to develop Pine Trail-based Eee PCs to fend off Acer and Samsung in order to preserve its large share of netbooks. Various leaks have pointed to ASUS having at least three models using the new 1.66GHz Atom N450, most of which could launch as soon as next week.
ASUS has officially denied the rumors but has stopped short of addressing specific details or reaffirming the future of the groups.
The Eee Stick has proven to be one of ASUS' more controversial products as it closely imitates Nintendo's main remote for its console and is meant to bring that experience to computers. However, it hasn't had broad support as most PC games are still built on the assumption the user will need a keyboard, mouse or a conventional gamepad.
