Asus Confident Netbooks will Thrive Alongside Tablets

Posted 05/03/2010 at 5:05am | by Paul Lilly

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Say what you will about the initial success of Apple's iPad and what it means for the future of handheld tablets, just don't try to convince Asus that netbooks are yesterday's news. On the contrary, Asus thinks netbooks will continue to be the more popular device.

"The tablet PC is a cloud computing device," said Jerry Shen, CEO of Asus. "It if weren't for Apple, this market would develop a lot more slowly."

Because tablets and netbooks serve two different markets, Shen isn't too worried about one overshadowing the other. Moreover, Asus plans to participate in both markets and will launch its own Eee Pad tablet at the Computex Taipei 2010 electronics trade show in early June. According to Shen, "The first phase will use Microsoft software."

Asus is predicting a big year for mobile computing in general. The company sold 2.5 million laptops in teh first quarter and expects shipments will rise as much as 10 percent in the second quarter. In addition, Asus shipped 1.6 million Eee PC netbooks and expects this will rise by 5 percent in the second quarter.

Image Credit: Asus