Forget the iPad, Asus readying two tablets for release soon

You’d think that Asus chairman Jonney Shih would be worried right now, given the impending release of Apple’s iPad in just a few days. But he’s far from it, according to Forbes. Instead, Shih seems confident that his company will be able to compete with Apple, and he announced that Asus has two tablets in the works for release in the coming months.
All we know about the tablets so far is that one will run one of Google’s operating systems — either the Android mobile OS or Chrome OS — and the other will run Windows (most likely Windows 7). By offering different operating systems and hardware options, Shih believes that Asus will offer consumers flexibility in the tablet market, something which they won’t receive with Apple’s iPad.
Asus will likely have price in its favor as well. Given the company’s experience with producing inexpensive hardware, plus the fact that Google’s operating systems are free and open-source, I suspect that its tablets will also be much cheaper than the iPad (which starts at $500). Even the Windows tablet has the potential to be much cheaper than the iPad.
Forbes speculates that Asus will unveil the tablets at June’s Computex trade show in Taipei. The company has previously used the conference to announce major new products, like the original Eee netbook in 2007.
Despite the tablet craze, Asus isn’t giving up on netbooks either. Shih sees netbooks as a quickly maturing segment of the computing market, and says that the company is hard at work at making its future netbook products thinner, more battery efficient, and more reliable. He also reports that it will develop more business-oriented netbooks in the future.
The company is also vying for a place in the mobile industry as well. It’s currently producing phones together with GPS-maker Garmin, and Microsoft reps have been relying on prototype Asus devices to show off Windows Phone 7 Series.
Based in Taipei, Taiwan, Asus is currently the number-six PC maker in the world, and Shih hopes that it can become number three by the end of 2011.
Tags: ipad, tablets
Companies: asus