Asus is expecting to ship a massive number of tablets in 2012, according to a new report. Those tablets could constitute a huge Windows 8 push.
Asus is
expecting to ship about 6 million tablet PCs in 2012, according to a new report
in
DigiTimes.
That's a
significant rise from 2011, when the company shipped approximately 1.8 million
tablets. It also seems wildly optimistic, given the anemic sales of non-iPad
tablets over the previous year. However, Asus and other hardware manufacturers
have a potential ace up their sleeves in the market-share battle against Apple:
Windows 8.
"As for the
recent report that [Asus] was not invited into the Windows on ARM (WOA)
development project, [Asus] noted that it has the strongest R&D ability
among notebook vendors and is the largest client of Nvidia," read
DigiTimes' Dec. 6 report. "Therefore,
the company will continue to have tight partnership with ARM-based processor
makers over development of the WOA platform."
For nearly a
year, Microsoft has touted how the upcoming Windows 8 will support system-on-a-chip
(SoC) architecture, in particular ARM-based systems from Nvidia and other
manufacturers. That architecture powers a majority of mobile devices currently
on the market, making such support a crucial element in Microsoft's plan to put
Windows 8 on tablets.
Asus is
prepping Windows 8 tablets before the end of 2012, at least according to a
corporate slideshow that
leaked onto the Web in October. One slide from
that deck suggests Asus will offer a "ticket for selling Windows 8 tablets in
Q3'12" alongside "2 hero products GTM in Q3'12."
While that
language made Asus' Windows strategy somewhat unclear, it nonetheless hinted
that the company will produce two Windows 8 tablets in the third quarter of
2012. If verified, that would align with rumors that Windows 8 will appear in a
broad-based release closer to the end of next year; Windows XP and Windows 7,
Microsoft's two most successful Windows versions, both arrived on store shelves
in October of their respective release years.
So is Asus
expecting to ship massive amounts of Windows 8 tablets in 2012? The
DigiTimes report, in conjunction with
those slides indicating a range of Windows 8 devices in the making, suggests such
a course. Certainly, other manufacturers, including Dell and Hewlett-Packard,
are prepping their own Windows 8 touch-screens for a wide release.
In a bid to
recapture a portion of the tablet market from Apple's iPad, Microsoft is
optimizing Windows 8 for touch-screens in addition to traditional PCs, with an
interface featuring sets of colorful, touchable tiles linked to applications.
Users can also flip to a Windows-style desktop interface.
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