14 DAY TRIAL // Since quite a bunch of tablets are about to, or have already been, revealed at Mobile World Congress 2011, it comes as no surprise to hear of companies already setting shipment goals, and reports have now given some inkling of what ASUS intends.
Like most, if not all, notebook and consumer electronics makers out there, ASUS will sell multiple tablets this year, in addition to doing other things.
For one, the outfit will do its best to establish a foothold in emerging markets, like Brazil and India, while strengthening the position in China.
Given how popular tablets are becoming, the company decided to prepare a whole collection of them, so as to appeal to as wide a consumer base as possible.
That said, according to a report made by Digitimes, the Eee Slate EP121, the 12.1-inch Intel-powered Windows 7 tablet launched in January, is just the first wave.
The company will follow up, in April, with a 10.1-inch NVIDIA Tegra 2-based slate dubbed Eee Pad Transformer EP101 and loaded with the Android 3.0 OS, otherwise known as Honeycomb.
After that, yet another 10.1-inch model should show up, named Eee Pad Slider EP102 and based on the same hardware and software as the above (Tegra and Honeycomb). It should arrive in May.
What's more, ASUS will implement a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in the Eee Pad MeMo EP71, a 7-inch 3G tablet that also runs Android 3.0. It will show up in June.
Basically, the company is preparing to address the needs of multiple user segments and intends to progressively expand its portfolio.
The report says that, according to a so-called investors conference in February 11, ASUS hopes to account for 10% of all worldwide tablet sales, excluding Apple's iPad.
For those that want numbers, this corresponds to about 1.5-2 million slate PCs by the end of the year.