14 DAY TRIAL // Asus has recently held a conference to announce the company's financial results for the third quarter of this year and apart from the usual sales and revenue numbers the Taiwanese maker also revealed that it plans to introduce four new tablets in 2012 powered by the Windows 8 and Android OSes.
Two of these upcoming tablets will arrive in the first quarter of the upcoming year and both run Google's mobile operating system, most probably Ice Cream Sandwich.
Asus hasn't disclosed the names or the specifications of any of the two devices, but it's highly likely that one of these will be the recently showcased Asus Padfone.
This two piece device comes as a combination between a smartphone and a tablet, the former being housed in a special compartment built right into the slate.
As far as Asus' Windows tablets are concerned, these will arrive in the third quarter of 2012 and the maker says these will concentrate on “innovation and product perfection” in the slides unveiled by Liliputing.
No details regarding the hardware used in any of the products Asus plans to ship in 2012 were unveiled, but most probably these will use next-generation ARM-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices.
Asus has already taken a step in this direction with the announcement of the 10.1-inch Transformer Prime tablet that is powered by Nvidia's quad-core Kal-El SoC and runs the Google Honeycomb operating system.
The tablet is expected to come out on November 9 and it addition to its Nvidia-designed heart also features WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, a mini HDMI port, and a built-in battery capable of delivering up to 14.5 hours of battery life, according to Asus.
Just like the first iteration of the Transformer tablet, the Prime is also available with a detachable keyboard docking station, while the chassis measures no more than 8.3mm.
