14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS is very confident in its tablet expertise, so much that it has set the goal of becoming the primary supplier of Android-loaded slates in the second half of 2012.
The tablet market will experience its second great upsurge in the second half of this year, when Microsoft will release the Windows 8 operating system.
That OS will not only have a good implementation of touchscreen controls, but it will support the ARM CPU architecture as well.
In other words, it will become a direct competitor to Google's Android operating system.
There is no chance for the latter to suddenly disappear though. In fact, there is little probability that it will even start to decline in importance. Android 4.0 has proven quite popular and will only be succeeded by better implementations.
Knowing this, but also knowing that there won't be any clear leader on the Windows front for a while, ASUS has chosen to be particularly proactive on the Android slate market. At least, this is what Digitimes' newest report on the matter states.
ASUS scored on the tablet market when it made the Eee Pad Transformer and, later, when it launched the Transformer Prime.
The former was not forgotten when the latter appeared, even receiving OS updates up to Android 4.0. Sure, the Prime has its problems, most notably the capricious GPS that ended up needing a dongle to fix, but still.
A more recent arrival is the Transformer Pad, but the trademark will probably be used for quite a while from now on. On a related note, Apple has recently said that, by its reckoning, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the only real rival to the iPad. Needless to say, ASUS has every intention of blasting this idea to bits as soon as possible, so sit back and enjoy the fireworks.