Asus Making a $200 Android or Chrome Netbook

The netbook going back to its roots?

Asus is a pioneer of the low-cost, small notebook made for internet consumption. That was the original concept behind the Linux-based Eee PC, but soon that grew into something bigger when Windows XP invaded and owned the segment.

Now Google has something that could be a very good alternative to Linux in the form of Chrome OS. We put Google's own Cr-48 through its paces and we came away impressed with computing from the cloud.

Reports from Taiwan now point to Asus as working on a low-cost netbook that could float around the $200 to $250 range that will run a Google OS. Interestingly, the report says that it could be either Android 3.0 or Chrome OS.

The Chrome OS would make more sense for a notebook form factor, but with the growth expected for Android tablets this year, having a netbook with a full hardware keyboard running Honeycomb could be interesting.