14 DAY TRIAL // Without a doubt, the iPad 2 is one of the hottest topics right now, everyone in the tech world just waiting to see when Apple will finally decided to take the wraps of the successor that really ushered-in the Internet tablet concept and brought it to a whole new level, but it seems that the company's competitors are not at all intimidated by this thing's arrival, or at least that's the case with Asus. And that's because, as Slashgear reports, Asus' own CEO, Mr. Shih, declared in an interview for Computerworld that the Taiwan-based manufacturer has prepared a “secret weapon” against the iPad 2, that, however, they're not really ready to reveal just yet, preferring to wait until its closer to completion.
However, the company's top representative refrained from providing any further details on the matter, so it's not exactly clear whether we're talking about a direct competitor (in other words, a tablet, although that seems to be the logical conclusion) or a certain component that will make Asus' tablets more powerful than the iPad 2.
In fact, since we're talking about components, it's interesting to mention that, within the same interview, Asus' CEO provided a few interesting hints that lead us to believe that he's well aware of the capabilities provided by the hardware powering the future iPad 2, and he's not really impressed by them, as they're clearly inferior to the Tegra 2 platform from NVIDIA.
In any case, regardless of what Asus' secret weapon might be, one thing's for sure: while the iPad was the first tablet to arrive on the market and has thus recorded a huge level of success, its successors will face a much tougher job, given the fact that they'll have to compete both against their numerous competitors, but also fight to garner the attention of 1'st generation iPad owners, who'll not be that easily convinced to go for a new tablet after coughing up a serious amount for the 1'st model.