ASUS may be working on yet another version of its Eee Pad tablet, the TF300T. Its design and model number indicate it's a follow-up to the company's quad-core Transformer Prime TF101. Spotted by Taiwanese site NCCC, the photos are accompanied by a certification from QuieTek, which provides wireless testing for electronics.
ASUS in a brief answer on Facebook explained that the original Eee Pad Transformer would get its Android 4.0 update in February. The terse answer didn't give a schedule for the rollout, although the Wi-Fi only releases should let most owners upgrade within days. The upgrade should bring the updated interface and improved speed, although it won't be as dramatic an improvement as on phones.
A new accessory for ASUS' upcoming Eee Pad MeMO unveiled at CES has just shown up at the FCC. Called the MeMic, it's meant to connect over Bluetooth to the seven-inch tablet and allow users to make phone calls without holding the large tablet next to their head. It will also double as a remote control for the tablet.
ASUS has revealed the new Eee Pad MeMO, a 7-inch, quad-core Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) tablet. The processor is a Tegra 3 matched with 1GB of RAM, while the display is also a high-quality IPS WXGA-type. The headlining feature, however, is the price – just $249, which is likely to give early adopting Kindle Fire users pause.
ASUS in a presentation in Taiwan confirmed its commitment to Windows 8 tablets while also renewing its efforts in Android. Eee Systems chief Samson Hu mentioned with Netbook News present that there would be an ARM-based tablet using Microsoft's new OS. Partly supporting rumors of a September date, Hu said it would arrive before the end of the year, hinting at a wait for Windows 8 itself.
ASUS may have a sequel to the Eee Pad Memo ready if a leaked shot and details prove true. The seven-inch slate, possibly the Memo Pad appears a straightforward tablet in Notebook Italia's details, but it would be relatively high-grade relative to competitors. In tandem with a 1280x800 display, it would pick up a dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, carry between 16GB to 64GB of storage, and even have optional 3G wireless and 3D display versions.
ASUS chairman Jonney Shih set broad but modest targets for his company's tablets in statements this week. He expected three million to six million tablets shipping through all of the year, CENS said. The company has repeatedly estimated that it would deliver 1.8 million Eee Pads in 2011.
Merrill Lynch analyst Scott Craig in a research note estimated that 2012 would see multiple tablet designers cut out of the market. RIM would be the primary victim, as its poor BlackBerry PlayBook sales had not only lacked momentum but created a ripple effect where developers didn't write apps. In his projection, the analyst saw the PlayBook as non-existent in 2012's market share.
Apple is likely to have no trouble holding on to the tablet market in Europe, according to newly uncovered data from Context. It estimates that Apple shipped 2.99 million of the 4.05 million tablets in the western European market during the summer, or 73.8 percent. While the iPad was down from 77.8 percent in the spring, much of that gain from rivals was attributed to the rush on the clearance HP TouchPad, which wouldn't be a factor in the fall.
HP, not Samsung, was the ruler of non-iPad tablets in the US for the first ten months of the year, the NPD Group said in a new study. With just 1.2 million tablets sold at retail across every company outside of Apple, HP was the leader in the country at 17 percent, or 204,000, sold between its launch and October. The low count suggests that the fire sale $99 TouchPad, not HP's Windows range, was the sales leader by going on clearance.
ASUS CEO Jerry Shen gave a rare insight into Android tablet units late Monday with details of Eee Pad sales. He estimated that ASUS was on track to ship 1.8 million Eee Pad Transformers and Sliders from the Transformer's arrival in spring through to the end of the year, according to Digitimes. About 1.2 million of those had moved through the spring and summer, leaving 600,000 to ship in the fall.
Along with its third-quarter financial results PDF), ASUS revealed it will begin shipping tablets running on the Windows 8 operating system in the summer of next year. Specifically, there are two tablets due to be released then, with a heavy marketing push taking place ahead of the release to ensure strong sales. ASUS currently relies on the Android OS for its current tablets, such as the Eee Pad Transformer.
When the ASUS Transformer Prime launches on November 9, it will ship with Android 3.2 onboard rather than Android 4.0, Germany's TabletBlog reported. ASUS Germany itself hinted at this through its Facebook page, stating the device, along with the Eee Pad and Eee Pad Slider, will be upgradeable to Android 4.0. Exactly when such an update will be made available, however, hasn't been revealed.
GameStop's mobile plans became real Friday after the company started up a tablet test program to sell tablets online and in stores. Android tablets like Acer's Iconia Tab A100, ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer, and Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be available in 200 of its stores. Each will have both access to Kongregate's Arcade app store as well as seven free games, including EA's mobile versions of Dead Space and Madden as well as Sega's Sonic CD.
Apple's frequent iPhone supplier Pegatron is under Chinese government scrutiny for pollution, the company mentioned on Monday. Similar to the problems faced by Catcher, environmental studies mentioned by Digitimes had Pegatron accused of excess pollution, such as waste gas or simply noise pollution. Two of its subsidaries have also been fined for releasing polluted water into the public stream.
ASUS CEO Jonney Shih took the stage at the AsiaD conference to tease the Transformer Prime, its sequel to its relatively hot-selling Eee Pad Transformer tablet. The 10-inch slate should be the first major tablet, if not tablet of any kind, to ship with NVIDIA's Tegra 3. The chip is considered the first real quad-core mobile processor and technically has a fifth core to handle low-level tasks.
ASUS' Facebook page on Wednesday teased the upcoming Eee Pad Transformer 2. Although it would only call the Android tablet "the next transformation," the quick glimpse showed a much slimmer device than the original. The glossy black and brushed aluminum design appears more clearly patterned both after its own Zenbooks and, by extension, Apple's MacBook Air.
Tablet screen shipments spiked 35.5 percent in September in the wake of a seven-inch tablet boom, researchers at WitsView said in a new study. About 9.57 million of their panels shipped just in September, 1.82 million of which were for the smaller devices. The Amazon Kindle Fire, ASUS Eee Pad MeMo, the HTC Flyer, and possibly a new Nook Color were all adding to the tally.
ASUS chief Jerry Shen on Wednesday disagreed with Acer's view that ultrabooks will rescue PCs from tablets. In an observation, Shen called ultrabooks and tablets "parallel" categories that wouldn't see one steal sales away from the other, Digitimes heard. He didn't see any changes coming until at least Windows 8.
ASUS won't follow price cuts from HTC and from RIM to try and compete in the tablet market, CEO Jerry Shen commented Monday. He had no immediate plans to officially slash the price of the current Eee Pad Transformer, according to Digitimes. The upcoming Transformer 2 would come in at a higher price than the original at $499, Shen said.
ASUS at the Pepcom event Wednesday night committed to American launch details for the Eee Pad Slider. Its unique, tilt-sliding tablet will reach the US by the end of September and cost about $475 for a 16GB Wi-Fi version and $575 for 32GB. US models will ship with Android 3.2 already installed.
ASUS defied trends in an overall downward trend in PC builders by posting healthy results for its spring quarter. Its net earnings were up five percent to $124 million and its net profit climbed to $242 million based on better than anticipated notebook and tablet sales. Despite being a veteran of netbooks, its operating profit margin also grew to 5.9 percent, its highest in almost three years.
ASUS has quietly posted an official page for the Eee Pad Slider that confirms many of its details. The unique tablet has the same Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB or 32GB of storage as the Transformer but, because of the built-in keyboard, will necessarily be a lot bulkier at 0.68 inches deep and 2.12 pounds. It should ship with Android 3.1 from the start and already has a promise of upgrading to at least Android 3.2.
ASUS on Tuesday local time posted strong results that confirmed the rapid fall of netbooks but also gave the company hope through tablets. The Taiwan PC builder's CFO David Chang admitted ASUS would fall well under its original goals for netbooks in 2011 and would ship just four million to 4.5 million Eee PCs this year, as much as a third under its original six million-unit target. Tablets like the Eee Pad Transformer, however, were helping make up for the gap, Chang said.
Shipments of non-Apple tablets should rise 134 percent in 2012, even as the iPad grows only 55 percent, according to market estimates quoted by Digitimes. While the iPad is still forecast to hold a commanding lead, with 54 to 55 million units, shipments of Android-based tablets are expected to grow to between 44 and 45 million. Only 19 to 20 million Android tablets are predicted for the whole of 2011.
Part suppliers revealed that ASUS was gradually scaling down its Eee PC business. With a surfeit of Eee Pad Transformer demand and the crash in netbooks, ASUS was shifting more of its attention to tablets. Production run estimates for the Transformer given to Digitimes had up to 800,000 of the Android designs shipping in the summer, helping contribute to a total of two million for the whole year.
The delayed Eee Pad Slider will soon be available in Europe, as it popped up in the Portuguese online flyer at Phone House. The sliding 10.1-inch tablet will run on Android 3, and the 16GB model is priced at 349 euros (nearly $500) with a contract with ZON. While it's due to arrive for the UK in August, a US release date hasn't yet been announced but is expected soon.
An updated tablet display quality shootout at DisplayMate has just given Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 a slight edge over the iPad 2. While the Apple tablet remained superior to all the other tablets with a wide enough margin to win the last comparison, the new Galaxy Tab was often just ahead enough in tests to win overall. Samsung had the clear edge in resolution at 1280x800 but had just slightly better black levels, brightness, contrast, and glare.
ASUS' tablet shipments are due to surge enough that it may become one of the largest competitors in the field, touchscreen panel tipsters slipped out late Thursday. Once hit by chronic shortages, the company's shipments of Android tablets like the Eee Pad Transformer should reach 1.2 million to 1.5 million in the summer and only scale up further in the fall, according to Digitimes. Orders have supposedly jumped to include as many as four to 4.5 million tablets in the last six months of 2011.
ASUS has pushed the launch of its anticipated Android 3.0 Eee Pad Slider to the fall. According to a post on the ASUS UK Facebook page, the company says that it will confirm launch dates and pricing of the hybrid tablet later in this month. In the lead up to the launch, ASUS is also asking customers to complete some surveys to get a sense of what it is they are looking for in its products.
ASUS UK told fans late this week that the 3G version of the Eee Pad Transformer and the yet to be launched Eee Pad Slider were both coming to the country in August. A more specific timeframe and pricing were due to come for the Android 3 tablets closer to the actual release. Both of the variants have been mentioned as early as CES in January but hadn't received concrete detail until now.
ASUS chairman Johnny Shih claimed second place in the tablet market based on what he knew of its own Eee Pad Transformer numbers and the industry. He along with CEO Jerry Shen expected the Eee Pad Transformer to be the second-most popular tablet after the iPad and would push pas expectations with 300,000 shipped in June. The company had shipped 400,000 of the Android tablets between April and May, a third more than the 300,000 it had expected.
Android tablets running the NVidia Tegra 2 chipset have a substantial performance edge over Atom-based tablets, according to a series of benchmark tests performed for Tweakers. Researchers tested four tablets running Android 3.0.1 (Honeycomb). The lone Atom tablet tested, a prototype from Compal Electronics with a dual core 1.5GHz Oak Trail CPU, posted a Caffeinemarks score that was barely one-fourth that of the slowest Nvidia tablet. Caffeinemarks is a synthetic test that gauges the speed at which Android apps will run on a given system.
Part suppliers said late Thursday that Acer was seeing stronger than expected sales of the Iconia Tab line. It was "likely" to ship one million of the mostly Android-based tablets in the spring but could have moved more. Demand was hot enough that, according to Digitimes, Acer couldn't keep up from the April launch through May.
ASUS partly confirmed rumors of Eee Pad Transformer shortages on Friday through a statement from spokesman David Chang. He didn't acknowledge talk of just 10,000 of the Android 3.0 tablets shipping in April but anticipated that it would take at least a month to get back on track, with 100,000 in May and 200,000 in June. There would be a "significant alleviation" of shortages by June, Chang told NetbookNews, two months after it went on sale.
The Eee Pad Transformer from ASUS will not ship to those who ordered it at Target, Phandroid reported. The retail chain e-mailed those who ordered the device early, informing them the 16GB Wi-Fi device isn't available from any of its sources. The sudden cancellations have been seen as more evidence that ASUS has had to rapidly curb supply.
ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer shortage might be even more severe than thought, sources maintained Monday. ASUS had planned to ship 300,000 units a month but was facing a component shortage that capped it at just 10,000 units, NetbookNews' German wing was told. Production wouldn't get to intended levels until at least mid-June.
ASUS on Tuesday managed to claim the title of the first Android 3.0 tablet maker to witness a sellout through the US launch of the Eee Pad Transformer. Its first device is now listed at Amazon but is already out of stock. Its sellout isn't complete as Best Buy still claims to have some of the Transformer in supply.
Lenovo's plans for Android tablets beyond the Le Pad should take it into professional models based on a leaked presentation from Sunday. Called the ThinkPad Tablet, it would be the first known Lenovo slate with Android 3.0 and would make software customizations beyond just including the PC builder's already known Family UI interface. This is my next's copy of the slides showed "seamless integration" with corporate environments that would load up Cisco remote security tools, Computrace to find stolen tablets, as well as local security tools from McAfee and Symantec.
ASUS could face anemic shipments of the Eee Pad Transformer based on claims from Taiwan's Apple Daily [note: Apply isn't correct]. The company had planned to ship 200,000 of the Android 3.0 tablet in April but has allegedly faced a touch panel shortage that would cut its production numbers to less than 100,000. A recovery was possible in two weeks but would need both on-target May and June shipments to hit its earlier expectations.
Companies building Android 3.0 tablets are supposedly holding back on launches based on concerns of low sales and support from Google. Results for the Motorola Xoom were "lower than expected," according to rumors. Combined with Google's inability to help some partners, many have simply decided to wait before getting into tablets, Digitimes said.
An ASUS contact confirmed later on Wednesday that the Eee Pad Transformer would reach the US by the end of the month. According to those talking to in-transition tech blogger Joanna Stern, the trick Android 3.0 tablet should reach Best Buy and other stores for the rumored $399. Its trademark keyboard dock will cost a steep $150 but includes a second battery to push the battery life up to 16 hours.
ASUS on Friday began shipping the Eee Pad Transformer as its first real entry into the mobile tablet space. The Android 3.0 tablet earns its name through a keyboard dock that gives it a more notebook-like design. It both works as a true clamshell design and also extends the battery life from 9.5 hours for the tablet by itself to 16 hours with the two attached.
ASUS is reportedly planning to launch its Eee Pad Transformer tablet slightly ahead of schedule for customers in Taiwan. The Transformer setup centers around the EP101TC, an Android 3.0-based tablet with a 10.1-inch touchscreen. Users can dock the tablet to a keyboard with a folding hinge when a netbook form factor is preferred.
ASUS' latest tablet offering, the Eee Pad TF101, has surfaced at the FCC for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth testing and approval. The company has yet to disclose full specs for the device, though the model number suggests it offers a 10.1-inch touchscreen. The Windows 7 device is expected to offer many of the same features as its larger cousin, the EP121, which was previewed earlier this year at CES.
The iPad 2 has triggered a minor panic among PC and tablet makers, including a possible HP change in strategy for the future TouchPad, insiders said late Monday. A number of notebook designers, including Acer, ASUS, and HP, have reportedly looked at adding tablet features into what were going to be conventional designs. Digitimes cited the example of a 10-inch Eee Pad's USB keyboard as an example of what sort of Changes might take place.
ASUS has a "secret weapon" to wield against the next iPad, chairman Jonney Shih hinted in an interview. The four new tablets at CES were just the start and would be accompanied by something else. He wouldn't tell Computerworld if it was a tablet at all and was adamant that it had to wait until the launch.
ASUS' Eee Pads and Eee Slates using Android have not only been delayed but might ship without Android 3.0, company marketing specialist John Swatton said Wednesday. The announcements, which mentioned a spring shipping window and the new OS across the board, were a "mistake," he told the Inquirer. They would instead ship in summer and would be limited to Android 2.3, Google's most recent phone OS.
Presenting at CES 2011, ASUS has announced four new Eee tablets. The first of these is the Eee Pad MeMO, a 7.1-inch tablet running Android 3.0. The device includes a stylus despite using an iPhone-like capacitive touchscreen, and can output video in 1080p by way of a micro HDMI port.
ASUS revealed more about its upcoming Eee Pad line of tablet computers in a video featuring Chairman Jonney Shih. The company tweeted a link to the video, since removed from YouTube, which confirmed some of the specs for its 12-inch EP121 and 10-inch EP101. Also shown was another 10-inch tablet with a sliding keyboard, dubbed the EP102. The video provided the first glimpse of a smaller tablet, designated the EP71, without providing any details about the unit.
