We've been covering Asus products, especially components like motherboards and graphics cards for years now, and you know they are good. Since their stunning success with netbooks however, they have become a more prominent brand for other consumer devices like laptops and tablets. You may still be surprised to hear their latest X79 series motherboards currently hold a 70 percent share of the global sales market for the recently introduced Sandy Bridge Enthusiast LGA 2011 platform.
The figures speak for themselves: two out of every three X79 series motherboards sold are Asus branded. Also, according to the company's latest figures, published by DigiTimes, the Z68 and P67 series motherboards have also reached a global market share of approximately 50-60 percent each as well.
Asus shipped 23.5 million motherboards during 2011 and has set targets of 25 million units for this year. They announced they will begin shipping motherboards based on Intel's new Ivy Bridge platform in late February. The firm also confirmed that recent reports suggesting motherboard production would slowdown were false, they went on to say their inventory levels are normal and they have no plans to slow down production in the first quarter.
On the tablet front the firm has confirmed they plan to offer upgrades to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for their entire tablet range, which will be available for download on January 12.
Those curious about Windows 8 tablets should be covered as well - they plan to launch a new tablet PC using Intel's Clover Trail-W platform and ARM-based versions in the fourth quarter of 2012. Pricing is rumored to be at least $599 for the Intel-based tablet, and at least $459 for the ARM version, though it could well be subject to change as release is a long way off.
Finally, Asus disclosed plans to employ 100 more staff dedicated to Android at its Software R&D sites, and once Windows 8 tablets have been launched will then expand Windows staff further as well.