Asus preps Windows tablet for December, Android for March

The foretold tablet apocalypse has yet to fall upon us, but the touchscreen slates are coming. Asus promises. The company plans to launch its first tablet in December or January, which will be a 12-inch, $1,000 Windows Embedded Compact-based behemoth that ships with a docking station that transforms it into a laptop, according to CEO Jerry Shen.

Asus isn't entirely focused on Windows devices though. In fact, the electronics maker has over 800 engineers working on Android for phones, some of who will be moved to its tablet division. The company's first 10-inch Android slate will hit shelves shortly thereafter in March, and it will supposedly cost less than $399 -- just how far under $399 is open to interpretation.


Even at that price, the device will undercut Apple's cheapest iPad by $100, and apparently, it will do so without sacrificing features. "If you want to compete with the iPad, you have to do more than just be less expensive," Shen said. "You have to offer more features. We want to spend more time perfecting the [Eee Pad] before we launch. We're looking more at Q1 to launch the devices."