According to Australian publication ARN, Asus revealed a plan to increase the prices on all "existing and upcoming notebooks and Eee Family products" starting March 1st—up to 20%. But Asus...uhh...no one has any money! UPDATE:
According to ARN, Asus is claiming that worldwide financial downturn and an increase on parts prices will dictate their price hike. But at least one of those points is a little tough to swallow. Samsung has been having a tough time lately because they provide various electronic components to a multitude of companies—and the prices on these components (like LCDs) has gone down, not up.
Obviously, Asus is free to price their goods as they'd like. But within the competitive market of netbooks especially, their customer base is more interested in saving a buck than picking up something with the Asus brand name. [ARN]
UPDATE: According to Wired, Asus USA has denied knowledge of such a plan. That denial doesn't completely disprove the price increase, however, since most of the company's decisions are made overseas.
UPDATE 2: Asus USA has since contacted us explaining the ARN article to be "pure speculation, nothing more." They added, "There has been no such announcement from ASUS about price hikes, period. Also, this article is from Australia so it has no bearing on the US market at all."