14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS has been meaning to become the world's third greatest supplier of notebooks within a year or so, but it appears certain more or less unexpected developments on the IT market might delay the accomplishment of this plan.
Up until the end of 2009, the laptop market was more or less mainly divided into notebooks and netbooks, the latter having become a very significant part of PC makers' strategies.
In 2010, however, a certain new factor arose, one that some analysts see as having the potential to visibly change what this market segment looks like.
As some may or may not have guessed, said factor is the tablet market, which is already well past the point where it was made up of a single model, namely Apple's iPad.
Basically, tablets have come to be near or at the top in terms of analyst attention, and they appear to be on track to changing the PC market altogether, though the extent to which this will happen is still unclear.
A company in particular is worried that the slate market might actually have a negative effect on its plans for the future.
As Digitimes has it, Asustek Computer may fail to meet a certain goal it set for itself back in 2009.
Last year, the company said it would become the world's third greatest supplier of notebooks within three years.
Now, the report says the company is no longer sure it will succeed in this endeavor, especially if its own tablet PC business, not to mention the rest of its mobile initiative, doesn't meet its expectations.
Basically, tablets are seen as a sort of 'danger' to the 'traditional PC market' and ASUS fears slates will have a negative effect on its Eee PC sales.
All in all, its plan to become third greatest notebook maker will probably be delayed.
Moving forward, ASUS will try to avoid a price competition by differentiating its slates and intends to host a global sales meeting in December, to discuss the Eee Reader, Ee note and Eee pad with executives from offices worldwide in hopes of minimizing the impact.