Everyone may still be looking up at Apple when it comes to selling tablets, but a leader among the non-iPad tablet makers has emerged—and in a bit of a shocker, it's Asus, according to DigiTimes.
Asus shipped 400,000 tablets units in the first half of this year, according to the Taiwanese tech journal. That number likely was mostly filled by unit shipments of the company's first-generation, entry-level Eee Pad Transformer, though Asus did release its first-generation, Microsoft Windows 7-based Eee Slate EP121 in the first half of 2011 as well.
Citing its usual unnamed sources from Taiwanese components suppliers, DigiTimes reported Thursday that the company anticipates shipping two million tablets in 2011. That ambitious projection was likely reached because Asus will be adding several more tablet devices to its portfolio before the end of the year.
If Asus does hit its projected numbers, it will do so despite flying under the radar with its tablet portfolio as compared to other tablet makers not named Apple, at least as far as buzz is concerned. A quick and unscientific set of Google queries reveals that "Asus Eee Pad" comes up short in page results versus searches for Motorola's Xoom, Research in Motion's PlayBook, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab—not to mention HP's still-unreleased TouchPad, and Amazon's not-even-confirmed tablet device.
In addition to the second-generation Eee Pad Transformer with Google's Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS and Nvidia's upcoming quad-core Tegra 3 chip that's due out as soon as October, Asus has its 10.1-inch Eee Pad Slider and 7-inch Eee Pad MeMO 3D tablet-smartphone hybrid waiting in the wings.
The Eee Pad Slider, originally set for a May release, is now reportedly arriving in August. A 3G version of the first-generation Eee Pad Transformer could also be released in August, but with the second-generation Transformer supposedly coming so hot on its heels, that seems a bit odd.
The Eee Pad MeMO 3D will reportedly sport a 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor, Android Honeycomb 3.0, and "native" 3D visuals courtesy of its 3D IPS display—meaning 3D glasses aren't necessary.
The current Eee Pad Transformer is a 10.1-inch tablet with Android Honeycomb that's priced at $399, making it attractive to consumers who balk at the iPad's comparatively high price tag, let alone similar pricing for non-Apple tablets that lack the iPad's mojo.
Asus makes next to no profit margin on the Transformer itself, according to DigiTimes' sources, but can afford to do that because it sells a lot of the optional dockable keyboards that go with the tablet at profit to Transformer buyers.
The 10.1-inch Slider has a built-in, slide-out QWERTY keyboard and will priced higher, at between $499 and $799. It's got a 1.2GHz dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and runs Android Honeycomb 3.0.
With its 12.1-inch, 1280-by-800 multi-touch display, Intel Core i5 central processor, and option for up to 4GB of RAM, the Eee Slate EP121 with Windows 7 Home Premium is a bigger, more powerful tablet sporting more on-board memory than the iPad and its imitators. It's priced accordingly, at $999 for the 32GB version and $1,099 for the 64GB version.
With all those tablets in the pipeline, Asus is also poised to pass Acer as the biggest buyer of Nvidia's ARM-based Tegra chips, according to DigiTimes. Asus could order up as many as 2.5 million second- and third-generation Tegras in 2011, with two million targeted for tablets and another 500,000 Tegra 3 processors intended for a Google Chrome-based notebook, or "Chromebook," that the company has planned.
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