If the price will drop quickly the will sell a lot, otherwise...
..well, they won't. Didn't Asus managers do some proper market research? There are 15" Core Celeron Notebooks in the $400-499 price range nowadays which are way faster and have an internal big enough HDU.
So, if they want the Eee to sell a lot they better lower prices quite a bit soon. They better sell it at a loss and they could sell many units, otherwise if they keep these prices they won't sell much and it will be considered a failure.
The top of the line model should cost $299-$349 with the cheaper one in the $179-$209 price range. With those prices they would sell a lot, I'd buy a couple if there were those prices on the market already.