Asus is to take on the $199 OLPC XO laptop with a $200 Small, Cheap Computer for the developing world.

The company's keeping mum about the details of the machine, saying only that it'll debut in Q1 2009 for $200 (£134/€159).

Asus Eee PC and friend: even cheaper next year

Asus is scheduled to once again host a big launch event at January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Last year, it focused on the already shipping Eee PC 4G - its first, 7in netbook - and the company's WiMax plans.

The anticipated second-gen Eee PC - later to debut as the 901 - was, however, a no show.

The 4G is still available, as is a cut-down version, the 2G, which retails from $240 (£161/€190) upward. The 2G has a 571MHz Celeron M processor, 512MB of memory and 2GB of solid-state storage.

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