Asus Ensemble Line Update for remainder of Q4

Asus is going to be offering some funky new things to finish up the year. There are going to be 2 (not 1) configuration for every ensemble model. They are also going to be changing the warranty back to a 1 year global on some models.

Notable:

A lot of the hard drives are bumping up in size and down in speed. Some of the notebooks will be offered with XP Home instead of Professional.

For a premium, the W5 and V6 will have 4x dvd-rw drives.

I'll get into more detail later because this spread sheet is a bit confusing with all the models and ETA's..... but I'll try to explain it more at the end of the day.

 

Hmmm, the 2 configurations is nice to see.

But the Size->Speed isn't really, 5400rpm SHOULD be universal, 4200rpm is way too slow.

I think the warranty is a risky move, it could be better, or worse. I'm assuming upgrading the warranty is possible?

XP Home-> XP Pro = small price difference?

Hope to hear all the details soon!

 

Asus is clearing out their current stock in anticipation of the next intel platform at the end of January....... so they are making some moves which I don't like, but they do have reasonable answers for why.

1. All warranties are going to kick to 1 year global, effective almost immediately... sometime next week as the models start to change. There will be an option to buy an extra year through Asus and starting at the begining of the year I think, you'll be able to buy it with the laptop as an option.

2. The hard drives...... they're trying to compete and get rid of some of these notebooks and they are going for larger size and lower speed. I don't agree it's great, but Asus says that anyone looking for more performance are going to swap out their hard drives for bigger, faster ones anyway..... ok, doesn't make much sense, but that's how it is, so try to just follow along.

3. Mice and Carrying Cases are going to be extras........ they will be eliminated from all packages.


** The first new model which is going to reflect all of this above is a new configuration of the W3v which is actually available as of right now. The specs are noted below:

W3v
$1,799 (increased $100)
1.86ghz
8x DVD Super Multi (this is an upgrade from the 8x DVD Dual Layer, but really just adds DVD-RAM reading)
1024MB DDR2 533 (2 x 512 - RAM doubled)
100gb / 4200rpm (changed from a 60gb / 5400rpm)
XP Pro
1 Year Global Warranty (downgraded 1 year)
No Wireless Mouse
No Carrying Case


Now - keep in mind - the current W3 which is $100 cheaper, is still going to be sold for a few more weeks. That model has the wireless mouse and carrying case and 2 year warranty and 5400rpm hard drive...... So, if you want to pick those up, they're going to be in short supply, but may be exactly what you're looking for.

 

Adding ram but using a slower hard drive? Man, that's like bolting on a turbo and then taking out a spark plug...

 

They're trying to spread out their market to get rid of everything for the year and appeal to other people with a 100gb hard drive instead of a 60gb...... comments about this are well noted and obviously something I feel as well..... but since Asus feels the "performance" crowd doesn't like a 60gb/5400rpm anyway (wanting 120gb/5400 or 100gb/7200) ...... then they feel they're going to swap the hard drive anyway and lets go after a different group of people.

I'm still trying to understand the implications of the whole thing..... having two configurations of each model is going to be confusing, but when they change warranty and accessories and things like that, it just gets more confusing. There are more things going on that I want to wait to mention because they won't occur till later in the month, but they're on the same level as this new W3 model........ except affecting the W5, V6 and W2...... For now, lets focus on this W3 that showed up today.....

 

Looking over everything... the biggest "change" is going to be to W2v buyers.........

By mid-month the W2 is going to be changed over.... same price... minus the following:

1. 1 year less warranty (1 year global total)
2. no carrying case
3. no mouse
4. no media center remote

If you're looking for a W2, get it now.

 

I hope this doesn't sound like a dumb question in any way...but will this affect barebone systems at all? (i.e will they still come with bags and optical mice?)

 

Actually... I can't tell you that at this time. Next year they very well may not. Asus is distancing themselves from what we consider the "barebone" systems in a way. Next year there are going to be new models that are actually ONLY here in the US and not offered as an "ensemble" model anywhere else...... so basically you'll never see some of these models on Asus' sites.... anywhere in the world. They will start a new site that is dedicated to these barebone models...... there could be changes with the boxes.... Just so you know that, basically only the Z63a came with a mouse.... they all don't come that way.

 

So systems like the z70va/z63a/z71/z etc are gonna be phased out or just moved under a new brand?

 

probably phased out. these moves make me sad, unless asus has some ultra cool things coming out soon this'll probably hurt them a bit.

 

I don't actually know...... all I can say is that the roadmap I have for next year doesn't include any of those.... I'm not saying we're not going to get revisions of them later in the year, but the first systems based on the platform will be completely new systems with revisions of current systems coming months later. So, I can't be 100% positive at this point.

 

Justin, are these new systems coming out just totally ensemble units then? That's my understanding of your posts on this subject.

Basically what I understand is that Built on Asus models are still going to be sold (without the extras). But there's probably not going to be a refresh of them (like the z70va) to make way for the newer chipset/s (I forgot it's codename... can anyone link me to the codenames for these things???)

 

I think they'll keep the barebones - because if they don't, ALOT of resellers are going to be screwed for a while.

As Justin mentioned before(a few weeks ago), the ENSEMBLE and the Built On's will probrably be two different things......or so, I, or perhaps, we hope.

 

their barebone line is not going anywhere. Without their barebone line they loose most of their dealer to other odm's. We sell like 1 ensemble for every 30 built ons. It may vary from dealer to dealer but i am pretty sure its common. Getting rid of their barebones is like kicking the feet from under a table. The whole thing falls down. If anything you will see them try to compete with clevo in terms of video cards as they cant get any better in terms of quality with an exception to recent events.

 

Ahh cool.

So there just won't be any new barebones coming out with the new intel chipset for awhile I guess?

 

Asus is splitting their notebook division in the US into two entirely different entities. For the last 5 years they've had an ASUS and OEM line. Prior to that they only had the OEM line that they built for various companies. When they decided to create their white boxed models and sell them as a barebone for other companies to build with, their intention was to be a silent partner. Just like we build out desktops with Asus motherboards and graphics cards and now even power supplies and chasiss', etc..... it's not an Asus system to warranty.... it's ours. For the barebone line, they are going to eliminate them from their website and set up a new one that is supposedly going to be dedicated to the white book industry....... it'll explain that this is NOT an Asus system, but rather built with their parts, just like desktops you would have built. They want to keep people from calling them for repair work and they want to further seperate the barebone models and ensemble. Next year's barebone line is quite blah.... at least the initial models that will be out in mid to late Q1 are anyway. On the ensemble side, the notebooks are going to get even more exciting than what's already available.....

For the end-user...... Asus' barebone notebooks as they are now, may very well become extinct because Asus may make their new barebone site password protected for dealers only.... I'm not sure if they will or not, but that's the talk for now. So, in theory, they don't want to be associated with the barebones as much as they want to be known for their ensembles..... They want the barebones to become more of the product of the dealer, which was their main objective many years ago.

 

Ah....

But...

I fully understand...

So how will you call the barebone notebooks in the future?

I'll assume the 'ASUS' tag will not be on it, so like...the PRO-m8v, or the G2-m9a, or something?

 

Justin, when you mentione Intel's new chipset that's coming out in Jan, I assume you are talking of the dual core chips?
So can we expect to see them in Asus laptops by around Februrary or will it be longer?

 

Correct----- well we've always sold our notebooks as "PROPortable Z70va" or a tag like that... we used to have our own nameplates as well but Asus required their nameplates be used to continue to be listed on their site, etc...... But I imagine those may be extinct for next year, but not positive.

Yes, the dual-core Yonah cpus should be ready by mid-January and Asus should have systems out to us and ready to sell by early February. However, the roll out of new models on both the ensemble and for now the "built on" side, will take place over the about four months..... just about from early February to early June. This is barring any delay which we already know is quite possible.

 

I am all for it. Between me and you we may run the only opperation that services every part of their whitebook while other newbies get in the market charge less and just forward support to asus. This pisses me off to no extent especially when people call and say "but *#$%^& offers a lower price then you". To which i have to reply. "Thats great so go there and tell me how you feel about playing phone tag with your dealer and asus instead of just your dealer". Take the z71v battery and z70va lcd screen issues. Both recent. I know we swapped over 90% of these our selves out of pocket without forwarding a very few exceptions to asus. You think asus wants to loose that? If asus does this it will kill off all the dealers that sell just the barebones and offer no support for them (which is why we have these poor souls on the forums seeking answers instead of calling the dealers). That's why i think this will never happen. Asus #1 reseller are the cheap sites that sell the barebones. We fall in line somewhere later after all the barebones. i would venture to say only 1 out of 10 asus whitebooks sold are coming from the top 5 rated integrators. 90% are coming from places that dont know the difference between z70va-bt and z70a. Places that just copy and paste asus part numbers and price. There is no way asus can do this without destroying their base. But that's just my opinion. They can tell us whatever they want and make it seem like they are doing the world a flavor by supporting their whitebooks but in reality there is nothing they can do about that without destroying their whitebook division. What separates them from clevo for example is that asus has many dealers that provide service while clevo has what 2 or 3 big ones who them selves pass on alot of the work to clevo service center in cali. Asus rode on a few dealers backs to get this far and there is absolutely nothing they can do X us out of the picture. This is why me an you get along Justin. We are not really competitors. Where you specialize in Ensembles and probably prefer ensembles I specialize in whitebooks and would never recommend an ensemble unless the customer specifically asked about it. Also keep in mind that if asus separates them selves from the whitebook division you and I both loose something that allows us to remain competitive vs a giant like dell. That's fast and knowledgeable service for the home and pro users. Without whitebooks their ensemble line will fail which may not be so bad for them becuase i hear a contract with dell is in the works.

 

What they should be doing is concentrating to make a service depot on the east or mideast coast. If they want to keep their good name and get even bigger it will be a requirement.

 

Yea, they need one here too...one dedicated for ASUS.

Right now, their service depot up here is in Toronto, at a SuperCom(A Major Distrobuter) location.....

 

.... it's in the works as I mentioned to you privately Eddie...... I wouldn't say we concentrate on the ensemble line... our sales for the year are closely split down the middle. That helps to get twice as many notebooks out a day, with only having to build out half of them. I don't think anyone could focus on just one or the other -- or even should -- but in five years, i've gone from purely asus branded and built systems..... to purely parts which we imported to build systems...... to barebones.... to a mix of all of them. There isn't one perfect answer, but being limited as we were in the past makes things difficult. Everyone has their slow periods and having different lines helps because when one is slow, there is a good chance the other will be hot...... This means expanding much further than just "asus". For me, that means getting into the design of our systems and getting certain stuff which we only do regionally (like our home theaters and high-end workstations, up onto our site to attract a broader range of customers that we've been hiding this stuff from.

Asus certainly has future plans and even if we have something written in blood, the Asian women running these Taiwanese tech companies are ruthless..... I personally don't think many of them have hearts or morals and will do whatever is needed to get what they want...... I know that's a broad assumption, but I've dealt with a lot of them in the time we've been around and have seen and heard about many experiences like I describe. Asus is better than the rest, but you can't underestimate them.

 

Time will tell i guess but i highly doubt it. Call it a hunch but their whitebook division aint going anywhere.

 

Sometimes I wonder how you think, Eddie. This stuff doesn't come out of thin air, but is rather a compilation of what Asus says and what other news sources write about their relationships with other companies.

Asus is still going to make notebooks, however there are pressures on them to divide their notebook division into seperate companies altogether. I know for a fact that Sony doesn't the company who is going to design and build their notebooks to gain their own ground in the notebook market. At the same time, there are pressures from dealers like ourselves who actually see the moves Asus wants to make on the ensemble side and how they are growing that side more than they had planned (or at least told everyone they would) and with that, seems like they are lowering the quality and overall appeal of their whitebooks. Yes, their whitebooks are a flourishing business and they're not going to get rid of them, but they are increasing the exclusivity of the "ensemble" line, while making the "built-on" line more "affordable" and "mainstream".

.... Asus will even admit that Q1 and most of Q2 consists of rather boring systems....... there are a lot of systems that are going to be more along the lines of the Z71 series than the Z33 or Z70..... If Asus does seperate their ensemble and whitebook lines into totally seperate divisions or subsidiaries, then they can compete against each other a little more and the whitebook line won't just consist of boring, mainstream systems.

 

Dude i dont doubt the internal matters they want to address. I can care less whther they divide or subdivide. I highly doubt they will reduce production of their whitebooks in any manner which will limit the customers choise and dealer loyalty. Between you and I if we added other odm's to our starring line up i doubt it will help their sales. They are almost required to product the stuff that sells if they dont they loose business.

 

I have to respectively disagree. I think the recent events serve as a lesson for asus not as an example. You cant be perfect all the time but asus is replacing our bad z70va units small lots at a time no expense to us and i have to respect that. I think asus whitebooks are anything but boring if compared to years before. So they are constantly improving. SUUre it be nice to see a whitebook like the w2v or the w3v but hey you cant win them all. I still trying to figure out where you are going with this. I though you were saying that asus production of whitebook would grind down to a hault. I gotta get my reading glasses cus now you just confused me. Back to the drawing board. So if they do divide are you implying their whitebook division gets bigger or smaller? I dont know and dont wish to analyze the implications but i would venture to say recent evens and the success of their whitebooks will lead to bigger and better things for their whitebook division. Not sure how their ensemble line affects it right now. I think until they start to offer custom ensembles we have nothing to worry about.

 

With all due respect, you're not following me at all and if you had seen the roadmap you'd be on the same page, but you obviously aren't. I'm going to say it again.... I don't know how you think or where you're coming up with your information, but you're dealing with the present and I know for a fact that the future holds a much different animal. I'm not talking about W2 type whitebooks, but just the continuation of z70 type whitebooks........... next year's roadmap consists of systems more on the A6 / Z71 platform than it does systems on the Z70 or Z33 platform. You can respectfully disagree (you don't "respectively disagree"), but it's in black and white and unfortunately I think it's going to be bad for the higher end whitebook market. Asus plans on mainstream designs and builds, with low to mid performance, which a few higher end graphics models based on the same chassis'.

I'm talking about dividing the company's notebook division into three equal but seperate entities which are controlled by seperate people. Right now there are product managers for the OEM/Asus/Whitebook lines....... but they all report to the mobile division boss....... He is responsible for sales of everything and for them, their own name brand stuff HAS to be priority number one. They're already basically forces to seperate their OEM and Asus brands due to contract issues with Sony and Apple amoung others....... Since issues are already arising with the whitebook models, and they already plan on spinning off a totally seperate website for them.... it would be good to make them their own division at the very least. Next year's roadmap shows that the ensembles are going to get better and in the same way, the whitebooks are going to get more boring..... I don't think that's the way to go, but for the ensemble side, it helps seperate them more from the whitebooks in the hopes of attracting more customers. Asus' explaination for this is that the whitebooks will become more affordable and therefore help attract more people on the lower end......... however I look at it as us not being able to offer a great notebook that really competes with the ensemble models.... unless it IS an ensemble model.

So, with the ensembles getting sexier and the barebones getting to be more plain..... Asus will seperate the lines to a point where they really don't compete and can co-exist. At this point they feel there's not enough movement on either side and by pushing the boundaries of each line's market, they hope to attract new customers. Whether we like it or not, it's going to happen and if you haven't seen the roadmap by now, I can't imagine you'll be seeing it.....

 

Heh i am not one to believe in roadmaps. They almost never work.

 

.... ok, believe or not, the models shown are 90% of what's going to be coming out. You can not believe in ETA's or not believe in fairytale models that are 6 months to a year plus away...... but next quarter is pretty firm and if your rebuttal is going to be that you don't believe in road maps, fine....... but they consist products Asus has already designed and plan to bring in. Whether or not that all come in, or when they come in, is yet to be seen. However, if they had more attractive plans, they'd be the focus of the roadmap.... Right now, consider a system like the current Z71v being at the top of the barrel for Q1 of 06.

 

Yonah in Q1 was something I thought I'd like to wait for but I wouldn't want a high end laptop in a pedestrian chassis...

 

.. Then if you're going to be looking for Asus, you'll be looking for an ensemble model.

 

Lol
You mean asus will be making the chipsets on ensembles better then the whitebooks? Thats a step back i belive. I hope you are wrong otherwise their whitebook division dies very rapidly along with their ensemble division.

 

Eddie, please read everything I've said in the last two day, again. You're missing the point and I'm starting to believe you don't have a clue what's going on. This has nothing to do with the chipsets....... it has everything to do with the quality of the notebook on a whole. More of the ensembles are going to be to the level of the W2 while the whitebooks are only going to be made more on the level of the A6 / Z71 models.. Again, nothing to do with the "chipsets" but rather the quality of build and design put into the different models. I'm talking about "new" models and not refreshes of what we currently have (which are mainly refreshes of previous models from last year anyway)..........

Some of the models for next year will have very nice graphics chipsets, but I'm looking at them the same way I look at the Z71v now......... it's a great bang for your buck, but the quality of build and design doesn't match the quality of the graphics performance. I can't give you the roadmap, but if you're prived to it, I'm sure you can look at it and will understand what I'm talking about.

.... basically there isn't anything at this time that is making me excited about Q1 on the barebone side........ however on the ensemble side things are looking better than expected.

 

I was under the impression you meant that asus may release yonah for the ensemble but not the whitebook. Dude your confusing the hell out of me and prolly scaring anyone who is new here. Thats a fact. I ve reread everything you just said and frankly if i was a prospective buyer for asus whitebooks in the new year i would start looking elsewhere now. The roadmap looks glim at best.

 

Is there any word about Europe you know/can share with us? I was a little scared but I think my budget remains largly unaffected by these moves except for the warrenty decrease and the lack of a mouse but who knows if they will also make that move in the Netherlands.

 

Wow, interesting exchange going on here. I am glad that I got my W3V before the changes (only 2 weeks ago), or it would have been even harder for me to figure out what to buy. As it was, I was emailing Seth at ProPortable so many times that my email probably was being detected as SPAM. I am glad this forum is so active and provide lots of good information for ASUS owners. Thanks to all.

 

The ensemble moves are typically country by country as the markets vary...... Asus feels that the inclusion of the mouse and carrying bag and the two year warranty just haven't won over customers (or so says their market research). So, ideally they want to increase other specs which are known to sell more (ie: more hard drive space; more ram) and prices the same. I don't totally agree with them, but they paid good money for the research and I didn't.

Eddie - are you telling me now that you've looked at the roadmap? I just want to make sure your comment wasn't just sarcasim.... Because if you look at whitebooks for Q1, it really isn't nearly as exciting as the ensemle line... Asus admits it and says things will pick up, but for right now... the first round on yonah whitebooks seem unimpressive from the design and build side..... nothing that's really light and thin or sexy..

 

I definitely agree that it's a poor move made by Asus to remove those accessory from their package. What suck even worse is the price increase even with the loss of accessory. The whole attractive elements on some ensemble of Asus is their external look. Lots of people buy Asus because it's beautiful. Like how everythign blends together. Example would be the previous S5N family. It include mouse that blend with laptop. From brand to color. You can boast stuff like that to your friend. Without those the white laptop is nothing more than an Apple on window platform. Asus screwed up horrifically when pairing the white W5 with the black mouse though. Or was it the otherway around. Either way the whole warranty decrease thing doesn't affect me much since i had to deal with stuff like that rarely once or twice before. But i was expecting some price decrease with the drop in warranty.

At the moment i'm waiting for my order of an Asus to start shipping too. The wait is driving me crazy.

 

For my part I never cared for looks. I want value for money and that is what ASUS is offering right now. Cutting back from two years warrenty to just one is a bad idea in that light and dispensing with accesories like a decent carry-ing case and mouse is not smart either. Loosing that for an extra few GB's of (slow) storage space is even worse. If they where to make better laptops for the money they save they should give us something usefull like more RAM or a faster CPU.

Speaking just for myself, the carry-ing case and mouse was a nice extra but did not win me over. The two your "free" warranty was what won me over (that and the fact that ACER who makes comparably priced notebooks has such a bad quality reputation). I really hope that this move will not be mirrored in Europe.

 

.... well a 100gb / 4200rpm hard drive is more expensive than a 60gb / 5400rpm hard drive ... and 1gb of ram is more than the cost of 512mb of ram.

Asus' research shows that more people asked if they could "save" money by dropping to a one year warranty, or if they didn't have to get the accessories.... I believe that because we do hear that often. In fact, most people who buy or are looking at their systems don't know they come with those extras or the longer warranty.... So, it surprises most people in a good way. However, if someone passes on the laptop because they don't understand what is coming with it, then it's a lost sale. So I understand what they're doing to a point...... but of course I'm just as much, if not for the other side of the story so it's very hard for me to argue it because no one is really "right".

 

When I bought my W3A(April 2005) there was much less choice of 14" widescreen notebooks. The two year warranty was an advantage, but not something that clinched the sale, while I wasn't 100% sure about the mouse and the bag being included until the box arrived. Neither of these were strong selling points in my case. The mouse is in use (and is a good one although a little large to be portable) whereas the bag is unused.

John

 

Right... even though I like that most customers are surprised at extras they may not be aware of...... Your comments are much like a majority of people and that's mainly why Asus wanted to change things up.

 

Maybe a strategy would be the extended warranty, mouse, bag and other accessories as options that would be available at a discounted price if bought with the computer.

Is there / will there be an option to buy warranty extensions for Asus-branded computers?

John

 

..... that's an idea and one that is most likely going to be the case, here anyway...... but we're going to extend that to all accessories and the barebone line as well...... a discount if bought at the same time as the system.

Asus is going to offer up to a 2 year plan..... at one time they had an option for 3, so i don't know if that will come back or not, but I know it won't be retroactive.

 

Obviously, but what are you trying to say? I certainly was not saying they should simply give more away. What I was trying to say was that IF they where set on spending the extra cash on more hardware they should upgrade the RAM rather then putting it in a slow harddrive.

 

... well they're doing both.... I understood what you were saying, it's just whoever did their market research said this this, that, and the other... and that's what they're doing.... Increasing the ram and hard drive, and lessening the accessories and the warranty and keeping them around the same price.. (in the case of the W3, it means an increase of $100).

-In terms of the V6 --- well that will get an upgrade in ram and hard drive size, as well as a 128mb x700 graphics chip..... and that will increase about $300.

-The W5 will get an increase in hard drive size, ram and a new dvd burner....... but will lose all of the same things the others will and will revert to xp home instead of pro... but will still increase about $200.

So they're all over the board, but there is a method to their maddness... it's just yet to be seen.

 

Ahh, I was under the impression it was just a HDD upgrade (as much as it is an upgrade). Indeed we will see.

 

Dunno whats up with the 4200rpm drives but thats the worst thing they have done. As if every other person wont look and say "**** thats crappy". Then they will either look elsewhere or be forced to upgrade the drive.

 

Yeah... true..... a 100gb/7200rpm seagate drive is going to be dropped into mine when they arrive.... the heat and power consumption on them isn't much worse than the 5400rpm hitachi's that were coming standard in the units.... it's going to be a power house.