Next Eee PC wants to be touched?

The upcoming second iteration of ASUS's popular Eee PC could sport a touchscreen, reports have suggested.

According to Digitimes, which, like ASUS, is based in Taiwan, the Eee 900 may also include GPS support. The claims are based on an interview with Kevin Lin, vice president of ASUS's sales department.

Lin is quoted as saying that the Eee 900 is expected to ship in May or June in the UK, and will be priced in the region of 200 pounds (AU$545). The desktop version of the Eee, the E-DT, will be released at around the same time, priced at 99 pounds (AU$215), said Lin.

However, a UK spokesperson for ASUS told ZDNet.com.au's sister site ZDNet.co.uk on Wednesday that the Eee 900 — which will also be available running Windows, rather than Linux — would be made available from the end of April in the UK. This contradicted another ASUS spokesperson, who said, just two weeks ago, that the Eee 900 would only go on sale in the UK at the end of the second quarter or the start of the third quarter. It is not known when the Eee 900 will be coming to Australia.

The ASUS Eee PC 701.

The spokesperson told ZDNet.co.uk that the devices to go on sale at the end of April would not feature touchscreens or GPS. Eee enthusiasts have been modifying the laptop to include touchscreen technology for some months now, but that feature has not yet been officially introduced.