Oh Asus, how you’ve played us hot and cold with your Eee PC over the past few months. Sure, we were skeptical at first that you could sell a full-featured, flash-based PC for $199. But you assured us that you would ship an Eee PC on the cheap this year. Then, for a minute, it looked like we might not be getting the sub-$200 model here in the U.S. but you again assured us that all versions of the Eee would land on American shores in the fall. Well, it looks like you were right…but there’s a catch. The $199 version of the Eee PC will be sold in the U.S. to contract purchasers only. That’s bad news for bargain hunters but rest assured that other, slightly more expensive versions of the tiny machine will be sold through Best Buy and Newegg later this month. Final pricing and availability will be announced next week, so stay tuned.

For more on the Eee PC’s impending launch:
– see this Digitimes article