It’s no secret the folks from ASUS have been successful in the Android space with the Nexus 7 and Transformer tablet series, but one area they’ve struggled to gain traction is with smartphones. The company has been busy with their ASUS Padfone and FonePad, but penetrating the already crowded US smartphone market is the next challenge they want to take on.
The 4.7-inch HD smartphone that came with their Padfone Infinity was pretty impressive with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 series 1.7 GHz quad-core processor, which then docked into their 10-inch tablet to become a full-fledged Android tablet. Their Padfone series should need no introduction, but the smartphone side of things have been pretty quiet here in the US.
ASUS has been making some pretty impressive smartphone, but we’ve yet to see them come to market stateside. However, a few new reports going around this afternoon shows that ASUS will be entering this space sometime next year. While speaking with AllThingsD, an ASUS chairman mentioned they’d been having success working with US retailers and carriers, and hope to release a flagship smartphone soon.
In a market dominated by Apple and Samsung the battle is already tough with HTC, LG, and even Sony taking up the leftovers, so ASUS surely has their work cut out for them. In the end they’ve made huge strides with the Nexus 7 in both sales, and with retail partners, and smartphones are the next step.
The ASUS chairman ended by saying that 2013 wasn’t likely, and he then said “I think next year is more reasonable.” If recent releases by ASUS are anything to go on, we could see a top-tier Intel-powered smartphone, or even a Snapdragon 800 on board. Who’s interested in a smartphone from ASUS with some Verizon LTE?
SOURCE: AllThingsD
