According to Digitimes, Asus has recently started testing Ion-based netbook and nettop samples, and is considering launching some Ion-based products later in the year.

Many other vendors also have Ion products in the works, but Asus was rumored to be avoiding Nvidia's platform as not to step at Intel's toes. Apparently there's a chance it will go Ion after all, following vendors such as Acer and Lenovo, who have already embraced Ion on their netbooks and nettops.

Asus is reportedly planning to launch the first Ion-based Eee Box B1006 nettop sometime in Q3, but there's no set timeline for Ion-based netbooks yet.

More here.