Asus To Debut "At Least Two" Tablets To Rival Apple's iPad
If there was any question on just how popular the tablet PC world would become this year, take a look at the hype surrounding the iPad launch. And then take a look at Asus, who firmly believes they can challenge Apple in this arena. It makes sense when you think that it's Apple who is entering PC territory here, and just as Asus toppled the netbook market, they're clearly hoping to do the same in the tablet market.
Jonney Shih, chairman of Asus, recently admitted that the company is planning to reveal not one, but two iPad rival machines within the next couple of months, likely at Computex in June. In a recent interview with Forbes, Shih revealed the following: "Netbooks are the best combination of personal computing and cloud computing, but between netbooks and smartphones and e-readers, we think there will be a space for something like a tablet or slate PC."
That sounds a lot like Apple's take on things as well, but the company's not trying to make an iPad clone. Instead, they're tablet(s) will probably run on Google's Android OS, or possibly a Microsoft platform of some sort. He noted that "there will be an Apple camp [in tablets], but Asus always tries to address the open camps of Google and Microsoft."
He also stated that media will be huge in the tablet's functionality, likely alluding to the fact that it will probably handle Flash whereas the iPad cannot. We'd love to see a few Tegra 2-based tablets hit the market to take on the iPad, and hopefully pressure Apple into creating a next-gen model with a few necessary extras (like an SD card slot, USB port and support for Hulu without any fancy workaround).
Jonney Shih, chairman of Asus, recently admitted that the company is planning to reveal not one, but two iPad rival machines within the next couple of months, likely at Computex in June. In a recent interview with Forbes, Shih revealed the following: "Netbooks are the best combination of personal computing and cloud computing, but between netbooks and smartphones and e-readers, we think there will be a space for something like a tablet or slate PC."
That sounds a lot like Apple's take on things as well, but the company's not trying to make an iPad clone. Instead, they're tablet(s) will probably run on Google's Android OS, or possibly a Microsoft platform of some sort. He noted that "there will be an Apple camp [in tablets], but Asus always tries to address the open camps of Google and Microsoft."
He also stated that media will be huge in the tablet's functionality, likely alluding to the fact that it will probably handle Flash whereas the iPad cannot. We'd love to see a few Tegra 2-based tablets hit the market to take on the iPad, and hopefully pressure Apple into creating a next-gen model with a few necessary extras (like an SD card slot, USB port and support for Hulu without any fancy workaround).
