For those of you with a penchant for eco-friendly gadgetry, Micro Innovations will soon launch EcoSmart, an entire line of such products. We’re talking about a keyboard, a mouse, speakers, a 4-port USB hub, a USB keyboard, a webcam and media card reader/writer. All of these are to be made from materials that include organic, biodegradable stuff – bamboo, to be more precise.

The reason bamboo is preferred by manufacturers of electronic eco-friendly products is not only that it’s reasonably durable and pliable. The best thing about this kind of wood is that cutting it down and making stuff out of it doesn’t affect a bamboo forest too grievously. In the case of “classic” trees made of soft and hard wood, the harvest time is from 10 to 50 years, but bamboo apparently recovers after three to five years.

• Bamboo keyboards and mouse:

Nowadays, keyboards made of bamboo are a rage in China, as they provide a more environment-friendly alternative to the usual keyboard made of plastic.

As hi-tech brings conveniences and also pollution to the modern world, people who have a keen awareness of ecological protection are looking for green ways of living to offset the negative impact of advanced technologies.

Although bamboo keyboard is still a new thing to most computer users, it is nevertheless gaining popularity.

“We”ve delivered 20,000 bamboo keyboards to the wholesalers, and another 20,000 orders are awaiting delivery,” said Zhang Lina, a sales manager of the Jiangqiao Bamboo and Wood Industry Co. Ltd., the sole producer of bamboo keyboard in China.

The company is in Jiangxi”s Tonggu County, which enjoys abundant bamboo resources.

“We started mass producing the new product in October last year, which was mainly exported overseas,” Zhang said.

“It sells well in the European and American markets, but not the domestic market for now,” she said.

But, she added that the company has set up franchised stores in Shanghai and Ningbo to sell the products since the beginning of this year.

A bamboo keyboard sells at 80-300 yuan (US$12-US$44), or slightly higher than a normal plastic one in China, according to sales manager Zhang. Students and home computer users are major consumers of the product in the country.

• ASUS bamboo notebook:

Asus was just gagging around with it when they took their concept bamboo laptop around the trade shows. But here in the cold light of Earth Day +1, they’ve announced they’re actually going to mass-market these babies, in two flavors.

Essentially, these are going to be the standard 11.1″ Asus S6 and the 12″ Asus U6 (which they’ve previously covered in leather) cased in eco-friendly bamboo instead of mean ol’ plastics, so prepare for a bunch of In your face, greenie! smack talk at your local Starbucks. No announcements yet on chipsets, but the current S6 uses a 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T7700 Processor while the U6 runs a snappy 2.4GHz chip. Both pack a gig of RAM, a gig of super-quick DDR2 memory, and 100GB or more on the hard drive. The U6 rocked 3G internet connection capabilities, too, making this thing possibly the fastest environmentally conscious toy on the planet.

The new bambooed versions are expected to retail in the $1700 range, so they’re not totally out of reach, either. We honestly can’t tell if Asus weatherproofed those decks, but if saving the world means that much to you, you really might want to put a SquareTrade laptop warranty on yours, with or without Accidental Damage coverage, just to make sure your investment’s saved as well. Sorry, that won’t include termite infestations.

• Micro innovations goes all bamboo:

Two creatures love bamboo a whole lot. Pandas and eco-loving hippies. I make fun, but both creatures are smart, because bamboo grows super fast so chopping it down to be used in electronic devices, or to eat, is a good idea. Micro Innovations is the latest company to feature accessories made with a bamboo shell.

Those accessories include speakers, a card reader, a webcam, USB hub, keyboard and a mouse. Hopefully the guts of these devices are a little greener as well, not just the casing. These should be available in an electronics store near you around April or May.

Any of you guys and gals own bamboo encased devices? If so, how do you like them?

Perfect for making an earth friendly statement, Micro Innovations’ bamboo multimedia 2.0 channel amplified speakers contain the latest in sound technology in a beautifully crafted bamboo shell. Users enjoy rich sound performance and 8 watts of power while listening to music and movies through their computer or television. Other environmentally friendly bamboo computer accessories include a 1.3 mega-pixel webcam, 4 port USB hub, media card reader/writer and USB keypad.

“There is a high demand for environmentally friendly products. Research suggests that customers will pay a higher price for `green’ products and technology,” states Tim Coakley, Senior Vice President of Merchandising for DBL. “Micro Innovations has developed a great new eco-friendly product line-up that is stylish and speaks to an under saturated market of people who seek eco-friendly innovative technology.”

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