Why is the Asus Eee Box expensive?

For the price of Php 24,900USD 424INR 35,971EUR 404CNY 3,090 a lot of people are asking me why the recently launched Asus Eee Box is a little expensive in the Philippines (even if Asus bundled a 16″ LCD monitor with it)?

Back in June, when I first reported that the Asus Eee Box will come out this month, I predicted a retail price of just Php12,000USD 204INR 17,335EUR 195CNY 1,489. A similarly spec’ed desktop PC will hover around Php13,000USD 222INR 18,780EUR 211CNY 1,613 in price due to additional WiFi and Bluetooth connections.

However, Asus bundled with it a small 16″ LCD monitor which retails in the market for as low as Php7,000USD 119INR 10,112EUR 114CNY 869 for AOC models and Php7,500USD 128INR 10,835EUR 122CNY 931 for Samsung models. Subtract the cost of the LCD and you end up buying the Eee Box alone for Php17,500USD 298INR 25,281EUR 284CNY 2,172.

What can you buy with Php17,500USD 298INR 25,281EUR 284CNY 2,172?

Athlon 64 LE1640 @ 2.6GHz – Php2,410USD 41INR 3,481EUR 39CNY 299
2GB DDR2 SDRAM – Php1,960USD 33INR 2,831EUR 32CNY 243
250GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 8MB -Php2,680
MSI K9N6SGM-V NVidia V-PCie/S/L/R – Php2,250USD 38INR 3,250EUR 37CNY 279
Inno3D 7300GT 512MB DDR2 128bit DVI – Php2,510USD 43INR 3,626EUR 41CNY 311
Samsung 20x DVDRW lightscribe – Php1,440USD 25INR 2,080EUR 23CNY 179
WiFi Dongle – Php900USD 15INR 1,300EUR 15CNY 112
Bluetooth Dongle – Php250USD 4INR 361EUR 4CNY 31
———————-
Total – Php14,400USD 245INR 20,802EUR 234CNY 1,787

Of course, the Asus Eee Box will have the advantage of a smaller form factor and lower power consumption. I have this idea that Asus’ Eee line of PCs and laptops want to be perceived as small and affordable. The introduction of the Asus Eee PC line showed that almost anyone can now afford to have a laptop.

The price of the Eee Box does not give that impression that anyone can now afford to have a desktop PC. It’s still cheaper to go and buy from local PC retail stores. I might be wrong about what Asus want to achieve here or it’s just that local taxes and VAT pumped the extra Php5,500USD 94INR 7,945EUR 89CNY 683 into the price.

At that price point, I doubt Asus could sell a whole lot of Eee Box. What more that you can get a whole PC set w/ monitor for under Php15,000USD 256INR 21,669EUR 243CNY 1,862.