MSI Wind laptop could be delayed again

Members of the MsiWind.net community are reporting that the Wind laptop could be delayed for a second time.

The computer was initially due out on June 16th. But the 16th came and went, and MSI announced that the Wind would be delayed until June 27th. Oh yeah, and instead of coming with a 6 cell battery, MSI would be shipping a laptop with a 3 cell battery. The company did drop the price from $499 to $479, but honestly, I’d rather have the longer lasting battery than $20 in my pocket.

Anyway, now it looks like MSI reps are telling customers that the computers are not yet in stock, which means it’s unlikely we’ll see the computers start shipping tomorrow. It’s even less likely that you’ll be able to walk into a computer store anywhere in the US and pick one up. Not impossible, but unlikely.

The MSI Wind is still one of the most attractive next-gen netbooks around. It has an almost identical feature set to the the Asus Eee PC 1000H, but costs over $200 less. But if MSI can’t get it to market before Asus releases their new models in the US and Europe, I’m betting a lot of mini-laptop enthusiasts might decide to opt for the the Eee PC. Not only does Asus have a stronger track record than MSI at the moment, but there’s also a huge community of Eee PC users, which means you’re more likely to find community support at sites like EeeUser.

On the other hand, $200 is $200. And even with a few delays, it’s likely that MSI will get their computer out the door before Asus does. Asus hasn’t even announced a US release date for the Eee PC 901 or 1000/1000H models yet.

[via Mobility Site]

Update: It looks like the MSI Wind release date has been pushed back to July 7th.