Asustek, the inventor of netbooks, has shelved its expected Qualcomm Snapdragon-run Android-based model Eee that was showed off at Computec in June.

CEO Jerry Shen told an investors conference in Taiwan the other day that "I still don't see a clear market for smartbooks."

Asustek is also claiming limited resources though it could have its Pegatron subsidiary run them up.

CrunchGear wonders if the company is being pressured by its friends Intel and Microsoft. There's also speculation Google's prospective Chrome OS may be the responsible party.

Asustek, which expects to ship 1.5 million netbooks and 1.8 million notebooks this quarter, has also been losing money its last three quarter and needs to be cautious.