Now, expect more things to come from MSI as they gear up to keep ahead of the competition. MSI's Director of US Sales Andy Tung shares with Laptopmag.com about what is in store for the WIND.
Some of the points that was shared includes:
- A price drop for the MSI Wind 3-cell to retail for US$399, and the 6-cell, 160GB, wireless 802.11b/g/n version will retail for US$479. Compare that with what is selling today which US$479 for the 3-cell and US$549 for the 6-cell. That's quite a large saving. Hopefully this will prompt a drop in the Singapore prices too. Based on today's prices, we are paying roughly 8% more than our US counterparts.
- A new version Wind U120 will be aimed at the corporate market, sporting a new look, SSD and HDD options and 3.5G connectivity. It's expecting to hit the US end of the year and is likely to go for under $600 (which probably means $599).
- The 6-cell battery problems has almost being resolved. By end of October MSI should be caught up with the battery problem. Hurray! It certainly took them long enough.
- No plans for a dual-core Atom WIND anytime soon. MSI won't see the availability of that processor until second half of 2009. So don't hold out to get one. We're stuck with the current Atom in netbooks for quite sometime to come.
- Linux versions return rate is 4 times higher than Windows XP version. The message here is don't buy the Linux version, unless you intend to install your own copy of the Windows XP. Which incidently is a good option if you do have your own copy of Windows XP and you can be bothered to take your time to do. MSI is exploring adopting other Linux flavors, like a Ubuntu witha Mac OS interface, to replace the current SUSE Linux.
