ASUS 8GB Eee in short supply

The low-end versions of ASUS’ Eee laptop have received much of the attention - not least because of their bargain basement price tags - but up at the top they’re having problems keeping up with demand for their 8GB model.  SLC (single-level cell) NAND flash memory, which the Eee uses for storage instead of a traditional hard-drive, is currently in short supply, and ASUS has had to cut off shipments of the 8GB Eee to Taiwan until availability increases.

Furthrmore, a battery shortage is also impacting the numbers in stock, and while shipments are expected to resume within the next 14 days many of those will be to fulfil backorders.

Analysts, smelling a possible cover-up, have tentatively suggested that ASUS may be hedging its bets and strategically slowing down shipments of the 8GB version to minimise risk, given how expensive the SLC chips are.

[via Electronista]